


Don't Let Me Down

by FullMetalGuardian



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Alternate Universe - Angels & Demons, Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, Annie Kicks General Ass, Annie Leonhardt/Doughnuts - Relationship - Freeform, Annie fights demons, Annie saves Armin from Depression, Armin's too smart for his own good, Armin/Annie-Centric, Battle Scenes, Big Demons, Eventual Fluff, F/M, Feels, Guardian Angel, Happy Ending, Rated for Levi's Language, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Wild Backstories, horror themes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-14
Updated: 2017-09-29
Packaged: 2018-11-14 01:57:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 59,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11198067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FullMetalGuardian/pseuds/FullMetalGuardian
Summary: When Annie Leonhardt, the Military Police's strongest solo Guardian Angel,  receives a request to care for a brilliant-yet-troubled Mortal Armin Arlert, she assumes it will be a routine assignment. But when Armin detects Annie's invisible presence, his curious hunger for understanding causes both of them to question their sanity.





	1. Prologue: The Request

**Author's Note:**

> Running Warning list:  
> Tragic Info-dump (singular), Adult language, Implied Self-harm, Actual Self-Harm, Graphic Depictions of Violence and Gore, Spooky Hauntings, Rape insinuations, Suicide Mentions, Loads of Depression, Let Me Restate: Graphic Depictions of Violence and Gore, Minor Character Death,

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Tragic Info-dump

Annie kept her grunts and groans to herself as she took her seat at the pub. Other patrons bustled in and out, dubiously eyeing her Guardian Angel equipment about her and noting vocally the long spear that she leaned against the bar next to her spot in the corner of the room. 

 _What a day_ , she sighed to herself silently. 

"Evening, Annie," Dot Pixis's friendly voice spoke above the pub's quiet din. "Are you in for the usual?" She looked up to see him standing near the center of the room on the other side of the bar. His youthful eyes were surrounded by his characteristic wrinkles that implied lots of time spent smiling.

 _Of course, you only have one good drink_ , She thought, but only gave a curt nod in response.

He nodded, getting to work on the frothy, fiery drink that she always looked forward to at the end of a shift on Earth.

"One pint of Ashdraft!" He said, setting the maroon-colored drink in front of her with a wink. "I added extra Greek ashroot, just like you like."

She gave him another grateful nod and took a light sip of the cold liquid, swallowing just enough of it to give her a preview of the fiery aftertaste. It was good. Just what she needed. 

She sat peacefully for a few minutes, listening to the loudest interlocutors in the room. Some spoke loudly enough that she could follow their entire conversation; others were quiet and she could only catch snippets of their dialogue. She was content to sit like that, quietly enjoying the Ashdraft that was only supplied in this pub, even though dozens of others tried to replicate it. Dot seemed to pride himself on that fact.

"Leonhardt!" A deep voice split the air, and Annie sighed and turned to see Reiner Braun, still armed with his crossbow, grinning at her from the door. Bertholdt Hoover tailed him with a smaller smile, perhaps feeling a little sheepish at the looks the other patrons in the pub were giving them. Guardian Angels weren't that common, and to have not one, but _three_ in the same place was somewhat uncommon, especially if said Angels were still wearing combat attire. The volume of the room raised just enough to be noticeable at this new development.

Annie made eye contact with Reiner and glanced pointedly at the empty chairs next to her, giving a silent and subtle invitation to sit, knowing he'd accept. Reiner's grin only broadened as he crossed the room to join her.

"Where have you been? It's been forever!" Reiner clapped her on the back as he sat, leaning his crossbow against his barstool. "Hey, Pixis! Can we get two cork-beers over here?"

Annie almost missed Dot's rejoinder from the kitchen. "Get them yourself!"

"It's only been three days since the last time we saw her here, Reiner. That isn't exactly forever," Bertholdt said with a chuckle, and then smiled at Annie. "How have you been? You look like you've seen better days."

She sipped at her Ashdraft quietly for a moment before answering. She guessed that she looked like hell. She could feel that the scratches on her face were mostly gone, but the dirt and grime had yet to be showered off. "Fine," she says, "I just got back from a freelance project."

"That guy who asked you to help him with some Starvation a day or two back?" Reiner asked.

 She nodded. "Thirty-eight hours later, no more sStarvation in some African village." Her voice was flat and even despite her fatigue. "I just stopped for a drink before heading home."

Bertholdt whistled quietly. "Thirty-eight hours? That's a lot. I usually have to get back to Heaven after sixteen or seventeen hours. But that's why we're with the Scouts, and you're solo, huh?"

"She's not Solo, she's with the Military Police," Reiner corrected, "But she just fights solo."

Bertholdt tsked, "Semantics, you knew what I meant."

She shrugged. Technically, she was with the Military Police, but had shown an ineptitude for group-scenarios, and had received special permission from Nile Dok to operate on her own. Most people sort of forgot that she still reported to the MP's, which was something that Freelance Guardian Angels didn't have to do, but she didn't bother correcting them. She was essentially a freelancer who reported her mission successes to the Military Police. 

The Guardian Angels consists of three brigades: The Garrison, the Military Police, and the Scouting Corps. The three brigades were created for the purpose of maintaining safety from Demons across the planet earth. While the Military Police regulates the already-controlled (and admittedly safest) areas of Earth, the Scouting Corps actively pushes for more land, setting up outposts in countries across Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe for the Garrison to occupy and regulate. Once the land had been properly eradicated of all Titans (especially-powerful Demons that promote incredible evils like War and Terror), the Garrison takes over and the Scouting Corps moves on to take more land.

Reiner and Bertholdt filled Annie in on their most recent endeavor on Earth while she sipped idly at her drink. Eventually, Pixis arrived with the cork-beers and shared some jokes with them before returning to the kitchen. Reiner continued his story with plenty of arm gestures and sound effects, but honestly, she wasn't listening, and secretly hoped for a few minutes of silence with her drink before it was gone. Her eyes drifted over to a woman wearing a purple cloak who had wandered into the pub, taking in the room's sights as if they were new and wonderful. 

"And then, Bertholdt swung in and kicked a huge hole in the wall..." Reiner was saying.

She nodded, as if impressed at Bertholdt's feat, but was inwardly trying to analyse the woman as she meandered to the bar and tapped a little bell to call for the bartender. She glanced around, looking past Reiner's turned back at Annie. Her eyes widened slightly, before returning to speak with Pixis.

Suddenly, Reiner's story was interrupted by a dinging sound, and he groaned in not-so-subtle irritation as he withdrew his Scouting-Corps-Supplied pager. "It's Smith," he said to Bertholdt. "He's calling a meeting."

Annie briefly wondered when the last time she'd even _looked_ at her pager, let alone held it or heeded the messages it received. She might have been invited to the same meeting, if it was for all Guardian Angels, but no one expected her to be there, and so wouldn't notice when she went home instead.

Reiner tipped the last of his drink into his mouth before smiling at Annie. "Well!" He announced, "See you around!"

He stood up, grabbing his crossbow from the floor and shouting a thanks to Pixis, who gave a wry smile and waved. As Bertholdt gave Annie an awkward hug, she glanced up the bar to see him gesturing to where she sat, smiling at the woman with the cloak. Bertholdt stepped away from Annie, giving her a smile before following his friend, hollering similar gratitude to the pub owner.

Trying to ignore Bertholdt's awkward advances, Annie turned to watch as the woman approached her with visibly mild trepidation.

"Excuse me? Ma'am?" She said warily as Annie glanced over her figure quickly. She's beautiful, with thick, lovely blonde hair. Her indigo eyes are stunning and deep, and full of something Annie's seen a thousand times over. Loneliness. Oh, God, did Annie know that look.

"Yes?" Came Annie's reply.

"I'm sorry to bother you," the woman said, "Are you Annie Leonhardt?"

"Yeah."

"And you're a Guardian Angel?" The woman asked. "With the Military Police?"

Annie nodded in quiet understanding. She nudged her spear aside to gesture at the empty chair beside. "Technically, yeah."

The woman took a deep breath as she took the same seat Reiner vacated moments ago. "My name is Sabrina Arlert. I wanted to ask you for help. Do you have a minute?"

 

 


	2. There's Someone Here

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Armin gets bullied. Annie arrives on earth and does some creepin'.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Intense Bullying, Adult Language

If he had been a remotely good student before his mother's death, Armin Arlert became positively sensational in the two weeks since her passing. He found that allowing himself to be swallowed up by his studies took away from the pain that he and his father were feeling.

But if he really thought about it, which he absolutely _never_ allowed, he found that it wasn't enough.

History was his favorite subject, and he allowed himself to get lost in the current unit they were beginning to undertake, more than painfully aware of the dull ache pressing against his sternum from within that was the misery that he barely kept at bay with his studies.

"Listen, brats," came Mr. Ackerman's bitter voice from next to the projector, and Armin found himself clinging to every word he said as if they were keeping him alive. "The American Civil war fucked up _everything_. I know we haven't gone over any material yet, but if you had any brain cells at all, you'd remember that I left you with some reading over the weekend. Did any of you idiots bother going over it?"

Armin's hand went up, as well as Mikasa's and Marco's. Sasha and Connie, the Dynamic Duo, laughed aloud at the class's minimal efforts. Eren glanced at Armin with a guilty look on his face, but his eyes said clearly that he didn't care much about it. He and Mikasa had, from what Armin understood, perhaps the biggest weekend of their lives. Eren had finally figured out how to tell Mikasa how he felt about her. She felt the same, obviously, and they had apparently had all weekend to figure things out. How Mikasa had found time to go over the reading, Armin may never know.

"Shut up, you two." Mr. Ackerman didn't even look at the duo, but pointed directly at them anyway. "The rest of you, look around at the hands in the air. Those are the kids that are going to pass this class," His voice is flat and disinterested, but it's clear he's enjoying himself. "I'd recommend getting on their nice-lists as quickly as possible, because I'm sure as hell not going to tutor you when test day starts creeping in."

Armin lowered his hand back to his standard, polished-wooden desk, regretting he'd raised it. He was situated at the back of the room, adjacent to Eren's desk. He shrunk in his chair slightly as the students around him glanced back at him. He heard a whisper and a snicker that felt like his heart had been splashed with ice-water.

"Making mommy proud, Arlert?"

Mr. Ackerman's voice continued on into the lesson, and Armin fought tooth-and-nail to ignore the quiet, almost silent jab. _Don't listen to them_ , he told himself, _don't even identify the speaker. Just ignore it. Listen to Mr. Ackerman._

And so class went, with a conversation about the Battle of Fort Sumpter, and about how no one had even been killed until the very end. His clasmates asked a few questions, and Mr. Ackerman gave deadpan answers until the bell rang, and Armin realized that the day was over. He stayed at his desk, gritting his teeth. His plan was a good one; just stay here in history until he felt that it was safe to leave. He'd pulled it off once before. He'd just do some of his homework until then. He knew that no one with malicious intent would dare pull Armin out of Levi Ackerman's classroom.

"Armin, are you okay?" Eren's voice cut through Armin's thoughts like a knife. "We're headed to practice." He pointed a thumb at Mikasa, who stood patiently at the door, with the tinge of red that hadn't left her cheeks since Eren had told her he loved her. They had tried their hardest to not bring it up around Armin; they weren't hiding it, but they knew that he would find it hard to be especially happy for them. They were right, of course. He was struggling to feel happy about a lot of things, lately. His friends didn't even know that he knew, but they could never _really_ hide anything from him.

"Yeah, fine," he said as the other students packed their bags noisily and began filing out the door. "I was just going to stay behind and start on homework. I have a few questions about the class."

"Oh," Eren looked relieved, but Mikasa raised a questioning eyebrow from her spot near the doorway. "Great. Are you coming round mine tonight?"

"I'll have to run it past my dad," Armin replied, which translated directly to Probably not. He didn't look at Mikasa, but kept his eyes on Eren for a moment and gave a weak smile before looking back at the open textbook in front of him. "Don't be late for practice!" He tried to sound level and normal, but his voice came out just a tone higher than normal.

"Okay, well, text me later, alright?" Eren said, and Armin felt the smallest pang of guilt. Eren was only trying to reach out to him and help him feel alright, but the truth was, he didn't relish the idea of sitting and playing third-wheel to Eren and Mikasa during their puppy-love stage, no matter _how_ crappy he already felt.

"Alright," Armin replied, and pretended to focus on his textbook, but didn't miss the shrug that Eren gave to Mikasa, seemingly unsure of how to help. She glanced at her watch, wordlessly telling him to _hurry up_. He packed his things quickly, and flew out the door to prepare for soccer practice with her. There were still a few students in the room when Armin spoke up.

"Mr. Ackerman?" He said, catching his short teacher's eye, if only to keep up the facade that he was here to ask some questions. "Are we going to go over the political compromises that preceded the Civil War? I had some questions from the reading about the Three-Fifths Compromise and the Dred Scott decision, specifically."

"Arlert, nothing would delight me more than educating you on a bunch of bullshit that happened before shots got fired on Fort Sumter, but this is a US War History class," Mr. Ackerman's dry tone drifted across the rows of empty desks. "Not AP US Bullshit class. If you want _that_ , come to third period."

Someone cleared their voice in the doorway, and both teacher and student looked up to see the director of the school standing there with a mildly irritated expression on her face. She tapped her foot expectantly at the history teacher.

He looked somewhat put-off, and cleared his own throat before looking over at Armin. "I mean, no, we will not be studying the political aspects of the American Civil War. Killing and gore stuff only."

Director Ral smiled at his new word-choice and glanced over at Armin before addressing her employee. "Levi, Miss Zoe is here to pick you up. If your phone was working, I would have simply called, but something's wrong-"

"Yeah, Petra, I threw it at a student. I'll need a new one. And a new phone too." Mr. Ackerman cut her off as he ran his fingers through his hair absently. He turned to Armin, who was now the only student in the room. "I'm locking this room up, Arlert, I've gotta go herd cats. That means scram."

"Y-yes sir," Armin stuttered out. _Damn! Mr. Ackerman's usually stays til late! Damn it!_ He packed his things into his backpack, thinking frantically of a safe route out of the school. Should he try to find somewhere to lay low? No, there was still time, he could try to just get home as soon as possible.

He only briefly heard Miss Ral's exasperated voice ("You _threw_ your desk phone at a student?") as he zipped the last zipper and pushed past her out the door, not bothering to hear Mr. Ackerman explain himself.

He took a deep breath and pushed through the semi-crowded hallway. If he just _got out_ fast enough, he could avoid the trouble that was inevitably looking for him.

Luckily, he didn't need to stop by his locker. All of the textbooks and things he needed for his studies were in his backpack, so once he was maybe a few hundred yards from the school, he was probably safe.

He weaved through the busier portions of the school, trying to stick to the hallways where teachers liked to hang around outside their classrooms. He tossed the hood of his jacket over his head, hoping to hide his traitorously-unique blond locks of hair beneath the fabric.

 _Last hallway_ , he thought to himself, deciding to take a somewhat less-crowded hallway in order to take a less-used side door out of the building. His heart began racing in anticipation. Had they guessed his route again? They _always_ knew somehow which exit he'd take, and usually hung out in the hallway-

"Arlert!" A voice called, and Armin visibly cringed before he realized the voice wasn't a hostile one. He turned to see Mr. Hannes, the Gym teacher, walking toward him with a sad smile on his face. "Hey, Arlert. How are you holding up?"

Armin groaned internally, but managed a weak shrug as he glanced at the quickly-emptying hallway. His bullies weren't there, he was _so close_. "I'm fine, just heading home."

"I only just heard about your mom," he said, resting a hand on Armin's shoulder. "I'm really sorry. Sabrina was one of the most wonderful women to grace us with her child. I really looked up to her."

Armin smiled, but it was feeble at best, thanks to the dual attack by the teacher's generous-yet-painful words and the fact that the hallway was emptying and if Armin didn't leave soon, _they would find him_. "Thanks Mr. Hannes. I wish I could stand and talk, but I really do have to go, I have to help my dad out at home."

"Alright, kid, see you tomorrow," Mr. Hannes said kindly, but Armin was already gone, practically jogging to the door, desperate to escape the hurtful words and humiliation and maybe even violence that he would no doubt encounter if he wasn't fast enough.

He shoved the door open, tasting the sweet freshness of the early November air. It wasn't cold enough to justify heavy coats, nor was there snow on the ground to call for winter footwear. It smelled like freedom, so long as he could just get far enough away from here. Armin glanced warily over his shoulder at mostly-empty hall behind him as the doors closed, wondering if he'd _finally_ outsmarted them.

**_Wham._ **

Suddenly, Armin was knocked off his feet, and he saw stars for an instant before the back of his head collided with the ground. Someone had grabbed his head and thrown him down. He groaned in pain and frustration, as well as despair, utter defeat. He briefly considered, for the ten thousandth time, fighting back against all of them. But Armin was only a junior, and he wasn't exactly the picture of physical fitness either. He'd never be able to fight back, not like that. So he kept his head level, rolling over with a grunt and sitting up against a electrical transformer box to watch his enemies approach him. Whoever had knocked him down returned to the pack with more than a few laughs.

 _Just try to play nicely,_ he told himself, trying to stay calm. _Do what they say, it’ll be over soon enough._

"Hah! What'd I say, Shawn? I told ya he'd come this way," a gruff, stony voice chuckled as the owner stepped out from behind a large garbage can. "I'm a fuckin _genius_. Hey Armin, how was school?"

"H-hey Kenny," he stuttered, still shaking from the pain in his head. "I've had better days." He looked up and around at the group of kids around Kenny Ackerman. Kenny was a tall, well-matured senior who had grown an impressive jawstrap-beard. He was lean and muscly, and unfortunately, actually quite intelligent, just like any Ackerman. As far as Armin knew, he wasn't closely related to Mikasa or Levi, they had the same great-great grandfather, making them third cousins or something. He was surrounded by a bunch of thugs, most of them Seniors, who had stepped out from behind the school's mechanical equipment kept outside. He could hear someone sniffling behind another large green box nearby.

_Damn it! Why did I come through this exit?? There are so many hiding places, of course they’d wait outside! Why didn't I factor that?_

"That's a shame, Armin, it really is" Kenny said, mocking pain. "And I'd actually love to just get on with our daily round of teasing you for being a lonely, half-orphaned nerd, but I actually need your help today."

 _Oh no._ "You... n-need my help?" Armin sputtered, raising his eyebrows. This was not the norm, and any deviation from the daily torture was usually worse torture. _God, not today, please._

"Yep," Kenny said as he leaned casually against the same box Armin was sitting against. He idly pulled out a box of cigarettes and lit one with a shiny silver zippo lighter. After he'd taken a deep puff, he looked back down at Armin. "You see, Shawn over there is a bull-headed prick, and had issues keeping it in his pants today."

He gestured to one of the seniors who stood wearing some heavy metal band's shirt and a dirty gray jacket, as well as some tight jeans that would have been small on a chicken's legs. The kid, Shawn, was grinning.

"So now, there's a girl behind that box over there who is feeling quite ... embarrassed, Arlert. It's just a damn shame." Kenny shook his head, feigning disappointment in his friend. "And now, she's over there without clothes on, and she needs to get home, and it's not really warm out..." he spun his hand in circles, as if he could list off a dozen more things that were wrong with this girl's situation.

Armin didn't reply, but felt his heart begin to sink into a dark place, where instead of its beats supplying vitalizing health, they supplied only a dark, miserable, pressure-feeling with every pump. Was she naked over there? They _could_ be lying, but-

"So, are you going to help us out? Mina over there needs your clothes so she can get home, Armin."

Armin grit his teeth and narrowed his eyes. There was no way in hell that he was taking his clothes off for these idiots. "How do I know you're not lying?"

Kenny knelt down in front of him, uncomfortably close, and snatched Armin's hand from where it sat at his lap. Before he could register what was happening, Kenny pressed the hot end of his cigarette directly into the palm of his hand, and Armin yelped in pain, trying to pull away, but Kenny's grip was strong, and for a few moments, all the blond could do was struggle and endure the fierce searing of his flesh.

Finally, Kenny let up, tossing the cigarette away and and calling over to the nearby transformer. "Mina, Armin here doesn't want to give you his clothes. How does that make you feel?"

A broken, _clearly_ embarrassed and sickeningly hurt voice rang out from behind the box. "Armin? I don't know who you are, but they're telling the truth. Please, help-" her voice broke, and she left the implication hanging.

 _Oh my god, are you serious?_ Armin thought, feeling a mix of incredulity and wrenching empathy. Getting.. taken advantage of at school? His own situation suddenly seemed laughable compared to hers. _What do I do? Kenny and the others aren't going to help her._ He found that he couldn't think clearly, his head still thudding painfully where he'd hit it against the concrete.

"She can have my hoodie, I guess," he said finally, but didn't move. It felt like a weak response.

Kenny grinned wider. "That's real kind of you, Armin, but she needs more than your hoodie, don't you think? She has to walk home, and she doesn't live close. You're going to make a pretty girl walk home in just a hoodie?"

Armin grit his teeth, searching for a way out. He had some Gym clothes inside, but would they let him in to go and get them for her? Probably not. They wanted to humiliate him, they wouldn't let him off for anything. He could feel his hands shaking. _No, please don't make me take off my clothes._

"Come on, Armin, you're making me think you're not the gentleman we all know you are," Kenny grinned wider, reveling in Armin's discomfort.

Armin frantically analyzed the situation. There wasn’t a realistic way out; he could scream or whatever, but that would not only make his own situation worse later on, but this poor girl’s embarrassment would get brought to light when she might not actually want it like that. He could … run? But no, he’d get caught, and then they’d likely just tear the clothes off of him. Could he compromise? Maybe just give her his hoodie and pants, keeping his shirt? She didn’t need that, did she? But no, he could see in Kenny’s face that he was going to receive no mercy today.

Plus, he could hear the girl still sniffing and crying nearby. He could at least help _her._

Finally, his shoulders slumped in defeat. He was worthless anyway, the least he could do is give the girl his shirt and trousers, right? She needed it. He stood up slowly, and shrugged his backpack off his shoulders, setting it carefully behind him where no one would be able to reach it while his clothes were off.

 _God damn it, god damn it, god damn it. Why didn't I just leave with Eren and Mikasa? I could have dodged Kenny altogether_. But what about the girl? She would have been out here, naked and absolutely abased until the next unsuspecting kid came walking through this exit.

He shook his head in frustration as he took his phone, wallet, keys out of his pockets and stuffed them into the pack, his cheeks heating up. He wanted to tell them all to leave, to just let him take care of whatever girl was behind the box, but he knew that wasn't the game.

His shoes came off first, and then the hoodie. He half-expected someone to tackle him or kick him while he pulled his shirt off his head and set it on the transformer. Once he got to his belt, however, someone snickered and he hesitated and glanced around nervously.

"Hurry up, Arlert, she's freezing over there," Kenny chided, watching Armin eagerly, like a lion watches a trapped mouse. Armin conceded in mental agony and bitterly pulled off his pants.

Finally, he stood in nothing but his long gray boxer-briefs, and his worn black socks.

"You're a real good guy, Armin," Kenny said, his twisted grin never leaving his face as he stepped too close to him, again, snatching the clothes from the green box. "Mina! We got some clothes for you!"

The sniffling behind the box stopped as the girl behind it stood up and walked right out into the group of bullies, and Armin's face immediately heated up, an embarrassed, fiery rage.

She was wearing clothes. Completely not-naked. She was also grinning, and suddenly, Armin remembered the girl. Mina Carolina. She was star of a recent school play. _A drama student. An actor._

He'd been tricked.

The bully that Kenny had called Shawn stepped up to Armin and shoved him roughly in the chest, sending him stumbling back against the brick of the building. Another thug snagged his backpack, opening the zipper and swinging the bag around upside-down across the wall of the school. Textbooks, papers, pencils, pens, notebooks, a calculator, his phone and keys and wallet, and about a thousand other small things were scattered in a wide arc, and Armin cringed from his spot at the brick. The bully held onto the bag and walked over to where the edge of the school property was lined by a fence, and hurled the bag into a tree on the other side, where it got stuck about thirty feet in the air.

Kenny pulled out his phone and directed the camera at Armin, slumped and undressed against the brick wall of the school.

"You'll outsmart us next time, buddy," he said, "Say cheese!"

The shutter clicked, and Armin put his face in his hands, his rage and embarrassment and pathetic indignation sputtering out as the misery that he'd been holding in all day, _all week_ came out all at once. Hot tears slipped down his face as the kids laughed and walked away, gloating over their victory and asking to see the picture that Kenny had taken. They took his clothes and waved them around as they walked away, their voices growing quieter until they were gone.

Armin sat in miserable silence until he got to his feet, wearily determined to gather his things, get his gym clothes and go home. _Finally._

\------

Annie took a deep breath of the early November air. She wasn't sure what city or state she was in, knowing the area only to be in Heaven's Shiganshina zone. All she knew is that she was in a Western-American neighborhood, and the roads were wide and quiet. Oregon? Utah? Idaho? California?

There were still leaves on many of the trees, but there were more on the ground. Annie's feet crunched peacefully on the sidewalk as she simply took in the scenery. The sun in the sky indicated that it was perhaps three o'clock, which worked out well for her because most schools finished their classes at about that time. That gave her enough time to find the Arlert residence, kill a Demon, and maybe stop by a park or something before her short stop-by on earth was up. She'd told the gatekeepers not to bet on her staying on earth for longer than twenty hours, which was more than enough time to stay true to her promise to Sabrina Arlert to fight her son's demons.

Annie laid her long, silver spear across her shoulders and draped her arms across it and moved to the center of the road. Cars couldn't see her or hurt her, so why submit to the sidewalks?

 _From what I understand about demons and Armin's depression, I'm certain that there's a Despair haunting him,_ Sabrina had said. _I just need someone to go and get that demon to leave my son alone._

Annie agreed conservatively, and was grateful that she had. The day was so peaceful and quiet and solemn that she even allowed herself to smile a little.

She dug a hand into the pocket of her jeans that she admittedly maybe shouldn't have worn on a solo-combat mission on Earth, but this was Shiganshina, what was the worst Demon around? Lust? Rage? Both demons would run the opposite direction after just looking at Annie, so she felt okay wearing somewhat comfortable clothing.

She found the piece of paper she was looking for, the one with Armin's address on it. Apparently the kid was brilliant. At least, Sabrina had said so. Most parents said their kids were smart, but Sabrina had said so emphatically, and so had half-convinced Annie of it.

Annie appreciated the calm stillness of the neighborhood until she found the house on the piece of paper. It was a modest, two story building made of red brick adorned with some seeping vines. Everything about the house met the description on the paper Sabrina had given her. There was a two-car garage, an asphalt driveway, some plants by the front door. There was a modest-sized oak tree in the front lawn, and the grass beneath it looked in need of a trim, but not desperately so, which Annie regarded as a sign that the occupants of the house were still in mourning.

Annie could smell at least one demon nearby. They left their scents subtly every place that they spent time in. The house smelled like it had housed a demon recently, so she walked right up to the door and opened it, allowing herself in.

\------

Armin stumbled through the front door of his house an hour and a half after school ended. He wore his gym clothes, and had managed to retrieve all of his supplies without getting caught unclothed. He tossed his bag on the couch and opened the freezer, pulling out a bag of ice, left there in the likely event that he would need it. This time, it was used to ease the burn in the center of his left hand.

"Stupid cigarettes," he mumbled to himself as he pressed the makeshift ice-pack to his burn with a wince, "Who sold Kenny Ackerman a cigarette?"

His fiery hurt and pathetic indignation had all but sputtered out as he had pulled himself together after the incident. Now he was just... melancholy.

After a few moments of dealing with the burn, he opened the fridge and removed a jug of apple juice and poured himself a glass.

As he took small sips of it, he was sure to pay attention to his chest, specifically looking for a certain lonely, miserable-feeling pressure. It had been replaced with rage while he'd been picked on by Kenny and his cohorts, but had only returned for the fifteen minute walk home, leaving again as he approached his house.

His depression had a long track record of being in and out, but it had returned in violent, full-force when his mother passed away two weeks ago. The sometimes-burning, sometimes-waning pressure in his chest had been his constant, miserable companion for those two weeks and hadn't left him alone until today.

 _Shouldn't it be rearing its ugly head about now?_ Armin thought, _Now that I'm thinking about Kenny?_

But the longer he stood there drinking juice and thinking about getting bullied, the more it was clear that no matter what he thought about, he was emotionally stable, something he hadn't felt in a long time. He even thought about being in his underpants in front of Kenny and Mina and the others with only mild irritation, rather than the upset mess that would logically have come with that line of thinking.

His juice finished, he cleaned his glass and returned it to the cupboard. His dad had been working longer shifts in the last few weeks, and so the responsibility of having a clean house had fallen on Armin. He glanced at the to-do list he'd pinned on the fridge, and noted that he had yet to mow the lawn.

 _It can wait till after homework,_ he decided and grabbed his backpack to head upstairs to his room.

\-----

Annie leaned against the counter that had just been vacated of juice and watched Armin hop up the stairs two-at-a-time with mild interest. This was the boy, the genius. Did he live alone? Sabrina had said that her husband, Fred, still lived at home, but had taken to working longer to cope with his loss. He was probably just at work, then.

Annie had been in the house for over an hour, but hadn't found a single demon. They're not much at hiding, but she was nonplussed. Sabrina had been sure that there was one, and the house _smelled_ like a demon's nest, but Annie had neither seen nor heard anything that even resembled Despair. 

 

She decided to follow Armin up the stairs, listening to him rifle through his bag, and turned to the first door on the left at the top to watch him pull out textbooks, a few pens, and ... a twig?

She looked at all the things being pulled out of the bag with interest. Once everything was out, he shook it, which released a decent-sized cloud of dust. A lot of the items rested on his bed looked like they'd been manhandled; his calculator had a small pebble wedged between buttons, a few of his pencils were broken, the textbooks had large tear-marks on the sides and many of the pages were folded awkwardly. One of them fell completely away from its cover, making Armin grimace.

She took a step back and looked around the blond boy's bedroom, noting the difference in treatment. His picture frames were all neat and dusted, his desk was empty save for a small clock and a lamp, and the floor was clear of clothes and shoes. The closet door was closed, and there was a laundry hamper with only a few clothes in it sitting pleasantly in the corner by the queen-sized bed. The window was open, allowing light to shine in on the pleasantly clean room.

She considered the juxtaposition with unease. All of his school things were battered and roughed, but his room was tediously looked after? It didn't make sense. As she pondered on the oddity, she absently lifted her spear an inch from the ground and dropped it again a few times in thought.

She jumped when Armin stepped to the window and looked down at the front yard, leaning out far enough to look at his own front door. "Dad?" He asked, but received no answer. "Are you home?"

He leaned back inside and cocked his head thoughtfully.

 _Who's he talking to?_ Annie wondered. _Did he hear something?_

Now more intrigued by the peculiar boy, she leaned against the wall near his door and watched him with a shadow of a grin. She _loved_ watching people, trying to discern what they were thinking, what their motives were, what kind of people they were. Being an invisible Guardian Angel made it that much easier, and she could lean in closer to Armin's face, trying to figure out what was going through his head. Absently again, she dropped her spear from an inch or so as she considered his thoughtful features.

Armin looked around the room thoughtfully, his eyes narrowed and his mind clearly spinning gears and crunching numbers.

 _He shouldn't be anxious or anything, so long as I'm here,_ she reasoned, still thudding her spear on the floor. _No anxiety-demons to speak of nearby. What's going on? Asthma?_

Suddenly, Armin spoke aloud.

"Is there someone here?" He asked quietly.

Annie froze.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- Is soccer season in November? I don't know. Do I care? Not really. Maybe it's an indoor club.  
> \- Kenny's not really that related to Levi and Mikasa in this fic. I needed a smart bully, and Kenny fit the description.  
> \- I don't have anything against Mina, but I needed some Canon bullies. The rest of the bullies, if I even bother to give them names, are OC's.  
> \- Actually second note about Mina, for some reason I had a different face to that name, and then I googled her to consider a description and discovered she was the cool girl who accepted the meat when Sasha snuck it out of the leaders' quarters on the day Trost fell... and was retaken. So I actually feel bad painting her a bad guy now, lol.  
> -Did you notice Sasha and Connie? Don't worry, they're not in the prologue anymore.


	3. I'll Give You Shelter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Snoopin continues. Armin meets Annie. Annie meets Armin's dad. Annie loves doughnuts, Levi asks unsolicited questions, and finally, Annie meets Kenny's demon. Despair is elusive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Implied Self-Harm, Some Demon Violence, and Mild Depictions of Gore

It wasn't the first time Armin thought that Kenny had somehow followed him home. But he quickly dismissed that idea, the presence in his room wasn't a person, it was more... ominous. He'd only heard faint noises, but they certainly were noises. It was a complex sound, as if the _thump thump_ noises were far away, but still taking place right in his room.

The moment he spoke to his empty bedroom, the noises stopped, which in itself was basically an answer in the affirmative, right?

Suddenly, he felt unsafe. There was something in his room, what should he do? Who could he call? Should he play it quiet and it'd leave?

Then, he felt ridiculous. He wasn't religious, where did he get the idea that something unseen and living could hide out in his room, making noises?

And _then_ , he felt unsure. He'd never been emphatically atheist, could he really say that there was _no_ possibility of there being a sentient, invisible _something_ in his room?

So he decided on a firm _maybe_ . There certainly _could_ be something that was making noises in his room, but he wouldn't do anything about it yet, in case it turned out that the noises were just a cat on the roof or something. It was pretty presumptuous to assume that there was actually something alive actively making noise, or that it was supernatural, right? So he'd just continue on like normal, and assume there was _probably_ nothing.

He visibly shrugged, as if to convey to the numinous presence that he was not decided on its existence yet. He told himself that if he wasn't decided on its existence, he didn't need to shrug to anyone to convey a message, especially if he was leaning towards the idea that there was nothing. But best to err on the side of caution, right?

So he returned to his school supplies, pulling items aside and removing any debris that was left from the gratuitously violent dissemination they'd been unceremoniously hurled into by the bully whose name Armin couldn't remember. It had taken Armin the better part of fifteen minutes to get his bag from the tree and then get all his supplies off the ground and back where they belonged. He had still been in his underwear, however, and hadn't taken the time to address his things they way he wanted to.

As a result, he sorted through his textbooks, folding pages back the way they belonged, picked a pebble out of his calculator, threw away a few broken pencils, returned the ones in working order to the small pouch they belonged in (how had those gotten out of the zipper pouch anyway?) and placed the ruined biology textbook gingerly to the side to prevent any further damage, making a mental note to speak to Mr. Gunther about paying for a new one or getting the cover fixed or something.

Finally, he slid his personal laptop from the drawer in his desk, grateful to whatever God there was that he hadn't decided to take it to school today. The image of the expensive machine exploding against the wall of the school made Armin determine to _never_ bring it there. It powered up quickly, and he had every intention to begin researching the influence of the Dred Scott decision over the American Civil War, he really did, but when the Google homepage loaded, his fingers hovered, suddenly vacillating.

Surely there was all sorts of internet lore about mysterious domestic supernatural experiences, right? Maybe someone online has something to say about it all.

 _No, nope, nopers,_ he chided himself, _Googling it would only guarantee that I actually believe there's something here. I'm nonpartisan, remember?_

But the truth was, even though he'd ignored it, he could _tell_ there was something different about his house today. There was an inexplicable warmth that had been treating him to a homely contentment since he'd arrived, and he realized that his melancholic mood had shifted to something more mildly chipper.

And so he indulged himself, just this once. His fingers typed slowly, but determinedly.

_How to recognize the presence of spirits_

\--------

Annie's breath halted in her throat as she watched Armin type into his computer. She'd been caught out. Holy Heaven, this kid was _incisive_. Sabrina hadn't just been talking up her son, Armin was the real deal.

She wanted to be irritated, since this would make her job more difficult, but instead she was intrigued.

First of all, Armin had _heard_ her. He shouldn't be able to detect her at all, full stop. But he had picked up on the noise her spear had made as it connected lightly with _carpet._ How Armin, a mortal, had been able to not only hear it, but so quickly draw a conclusion had been astounding. It hadn't been half an hour, and he was already trying to fill in gaps in his understanding of the spiritual, which meant that he'd been considering it this whole time.

Second of all, he hadn't ruled out the spiritual on the basis that it would label him as unsettled at best, insane at worst. He clearly had weighed his options and decided to educate himself.

Of course, she considered, there was the possibility that the boy was spiritual and perhaps obsessive about the topic anyway, but quickly dismissed it. He wouldn't be googling how-to sites if he felt he already had an understanding of the supernatural.

She didn't expect him to find anything decisive on the internet, so she wasn't too concerned, but she began working _extremely_ quietly, not so much as making a sound that even she could hear, much less the blond genius.

If he was going to get started figuring her out, she was going to do the same. She wanted to figure _him_ out, and she knew just how to do it. It was something that she had gotten quite good at in her time as a solo-MP. Digging through people's houses, looking into every photo and portrait to understand as much as she could, drawing a few conclusions which she noted. Reading a few journals (although she was told that that was unethical) to figure out family issues was often lucrative. Even refrigerators also often told stories that the rest of the house couldn't.

 _Yes, Armin,_ she mused mischievously, _I'm going to get to know you better than anyone you know._

_\------_

Armin read with mild interest from the screen. The article was about sensing spirits and what types of spirits he could possibly be facing. His face only got more and more disappointed as he scanned the webpage, reading words like _earth sprites, negative energy_ , and _benign gnomes_ . It all felt... fake. Especially so when a flashing advertisement appeared with an image of an older woman and a banner that read _YOUR GUARDIAN ANGEL HAS A MESSAGE FOR_ _YOU!_

He tried a few more websites, looking for things that didn't seem like they were after his money, but it turned out that most of the sites claiming legitimacy at the spiritual were either entertainers or scammers. Not that they said it outright, but Armin could tell.

Suddenly, a bird began singing outside his window, and he jumped in surprise.

 _Oh wow, keep track of time, Armin!_ He smacked himself in the head lightly with a ghost of a smile and closed all four browser tabs. _Homework!_

He worked for a few hours, knocking out a biology worksheet, a diagram of Fort Sumpter, a review paper for a Government test, and a small worksheet for his Calculus class before deciding that everything else could be done at a later date. A glance at the clock told him it was seven o' clock.

 _Dad'll be home soon,_ he thought, _will he be hungry?_

He pulled his phone from his pocket and sent him a text ( _Hey, when will you be home?)_ before standing, stretching, and walking down the stairs.

Perhaps it was a catch of sunlight, perhaps it was just his mind playing tricks, but for just a tenth of a second, not even that, he saw a girl standing in front of his fireplace, hands crossed behind her back as she looked at some family pictures.

She was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. Blond hair up in a bun, and a curtain of it framed the sides of her face. Her eyes were an icy blue, and her small lips were ghosting a smirk.

Before he could even react, however, she was gone. He shook his head and blinked thoroughly. Had he actually seen that? He'd read about intrusive thoughts before, and sometimes he'd get random thoughts that he hadn't invited at all. Is that what this was?

He didn't even slow down on his way down the stairs, but he paused by the fireplace. If she was there, could he touch her? He slowly reached his arm out in front of the family photos, but he didn't expect to touch anything. His hand brushed through the air for a moment before he felt silly and dropped it back to his side.

_Huh._

He looked at the empty space for a moment before shrugging and walking into the kitchen, setting his phone on the counter.

 _That was weird,_ he thought, _but random thoughts about pretty girls aren’t_ that _uncommon._

He opened the door to the fridge, wondering about the girl and feeling not as uneasy as he perhaps should have been. Was she linked to the presence he'd been feeling? He'd only seen her for a second, but she hadn't looked familiar.

 _Wait,_ he thought, _A young blond girl in the house that recently lost an older blond woman?_

His pace slowed as he pulled the stainless steel-handled door open, revealing the contents of the fridge. He stared at them thoughtfully before looking back to the room.

"Mom?" He asked quietly.

\---------

Annie stared at Armin in shock.

She grimaced. _Sometimes, I wish I could talk to mortals._

He looked right where she had been standing when he'd walked down the stairs. She had a feeling that he'd seen her then, but how? He'd looked right where she was and had reached his hand right through her face. How had he known?

Of course, he couldn't have gotten that good of a look if he thought she was his Mom. Sabrina and Annie looked similar in hair color only, Sabrina’s form had been curvier and taller. Annie was petite and she kept her hair shoulder-length.

Still, the way he'd looked at her...

Suddenly, Armin's phone vibrated loudly on the kitchen counter, causing both occupants to jump in surprise. He picked it up and read the message.

Armin spoke aloud. "So, Dad'll be home in a few minutes..." he trailed off and looked around the room, probably weighing his words. "I don't think you're my mom, but I don't think you're bad, either. But don't... do anything crazy with my dad around, okay?"

Annie's jaw dropped.

Firstly, she was _affronted_ that he thought she would be a disturbance. She was quiet as a mouse. Even a mouse wouldn't notice her, if it was a _normal mouse_ . Not some hypersensitive superhero _genius_ like Armin was. Fred Arlert would never notice her, no problem.

Secondly, what was this? Armin was talking _to her??_ He'd already decided that she was here? How the heaven did he come up with _that_ conclusion?!

Armin continued.

"I know, it's rude for me to assume that you'll cause trouble, because I've actually been happier with you around, which I guess I can thank you for..." he trailed off again, and Annie's heart began pounding. "Well, my Dad's fine, I guess. If you can make both of us happy, that'd be amazing. But you're.. you, I guess. Do whatever."

Annie felt a little piece of her admittedly cold and stony heart warm up. What Armin had said was some form of gratitude, and she'd _never_ gotten it from a mortal before, for multiple tacit reasons, and the fact that he'd had not just the brains to think of it but also the heart to say it was incredible. She'd never felt prouder.

Then, she stopped, her blood running cold. What the hell was she _doing_ ? She'd been fighting loneliness in Heaven ever since her father was rejected. She didn't connect with people. The only people she could _technically_ count as friends were Reiner and Bertholdt, and Hitch and Marlowe if she was stretching.

So why was she so easily feeling happy around a _mortal?_ That was only going to make things painful for her when her shift here was up, and she said goodbye to Armin forever. She should be looking for Despair, not reading in too deep on some brilliant medium prodigy kid.

How long had she been here, anyway? She withdrew her pocketwatch and looked at it. She'd arrived around three o'clock. It was nearing seven-thirty. Four and a half hours on a shift that could have taken her fifteen minutes.

She turned on her heel. Despair was not here. She would wait outside for the demon to return.

\---------

Armin felt the girl leave and tightened his fist. She didn't like being spoken to, clearly. She was still nearby, but she wasn't ... there with him anymore.

 _What am I thinking?_ He thought feebly, _Am I losing it? Three hours ago I was certain it was just a noise, now I'm talking to it?_

But, _wow_ , it kept responding! Not in a typical human two-way conversation, obviously, but the first time, it had stopped making noise when he spoke to it. This time it left altogether when he tried to tell it how he felt. So it didn't like being communicated with? Is that what it was?

Or maybe it was shy, and didn't know how to react to his gratitude? That didn't seem right. Did it?

He made a mental note not to address the presence in his house anymore as he finally shook himself from his thoughts. It was time to make dinner.

What could he make? He had learned a few things over time, and wondered what his dad would think about pasta. He'd made it a lot recently, but he wasn't exactly a chef. Would it be alright?

His phone suddenly vibrated again, and he read the text his dad sent.

_I stopped by the baker's for a treat. I have news. Dinner's on me. See you soon._

Armin cocked his head sideways, surprised and touched. His dad was even faring better today than he had in the past few weeks. God knows he needed it, Armin had been wondering if he would have to spoon-feed his father for a few days after his mother passed.

The first week had been hard, but the Arlerts were not weak-willed. Armin may have inherited his dad's small stature, and perhaps the two could be seen as weak physically, but there was no doubt in anyone's mind about the strength of an Arlert mind and will. His dad had gone back to work a few days after his mom's funeral, and had begun working somewhat longer hours to cope.

Armin knew he hadn't done as well as his father. If it hadn't been for his studies and the copious homework that was given to him, he may have fallen apart.

Of course, his clinical, chronic depression was the biggest factor. The cursed illness had soaked up any potential joy from any situation like a ravenous sponge for a fortnight now. Many days since the loss had been dark, meaningless, and unending. One day he'd gone without food, another he hadn't even gotten out of bed. He'd ignored countless phone calls from Eren and Mikasa.

But he'd found early last week that diving head-first into his studies had helped, somewhat. Spending a big chunk of the day focused on assignments and extra study was a healthy, scholarly distractions from the cold, bitter pressure behind his chest, and at least he could rest assured that _that_ particular coping method was one people would approve of.

Usually, though, no matter how strong his raw determination to stay focused was, flashes of a coffin sinking six feet under would crash through his thoughts like a rogue tornado, ruining everything. And that would start a domino effect until he had to… resort to other coping mechanisms. The kind _no one_ would approve of.

Which is why this afternoon was so odd. He'd gotten home and there hadn't been any problems. He had just burned though his homework without any long pauses or moments when he just couldn't focus. Almost three hours of consistent work. He hadn't been able to do that since... _well_ before his mother's passing.

Armin was awakened from his thoughts by the sound of the door to the garage opening around the corner from the kitchen.

"Armin?" Fredrich Arlert called from the other room. "I'm home!"

"In here," he replied as his father stepped into the kitchen. He was carrying two loaves of bread and a large, square flat box. "Wow, you got a pizza?"

The man smiled warmly, "Just a margherita. But I've got doughnuts in the car. I thought we'd do an easy dinner and a treat tonight."

"Great!" Armin said happily, "I'll go get the doughnuts from the car if you get the pizza ready?"

He agreed, and Armin left the kitchen, entering the garage through the adjacent laundry room.

When he returned with the rectangular box, his father stood in front of the open box of pizza with a peculiar expression on his face. He stood facing the room, looking at it as if assessing something.

"Something wrong?" Armin asked, setting the treats on the counter.

"No," he replied, "Is something different? I could swear that something is different about the house today."

Armin's eyes widened. Had _he_ noticed the comforting warmth as well? What did that mean?

"Something... better?" Armin asked tentatively. "I've kind of noticed it too, I'm not sure what it is, but it's... nice."

"Yeah, I think so, too," the older blond said contentedly.

\------------

 _Holy Heaven_ , Annie drooled, _glazed doughnuts._

She was half-listening to Armin and his dad converse about her, but it wasn't half as important as the twelve beautiful, glossy rings of dough baked to soft perfection.

_I haven't had a doughnut in so long... no one makes them in heaven... why haven't I looked for them?_

She _did_ leave the house in a stormy sort of determination to kill a demon, she really did. It was clear that Despair wasn't going to come back to cause problems until she was gone.

But then, Armin's dad had arrived, and she'd walked into the garage with his car, and ... saw _them_.

She stood there, ogling the pastries for the better part of ten minutes while Armin and Fred's conversation shifted away from the better mood about the house.

"About the news that I mentioned," Fred said, grabbing the doughnuts and shocking Annie's attention back to the conversation. "I've been offered a promotion. It's not a big deal, but the pay raise is considerable. They want me to be a team leader."

Armin beamed. "Whoa! That's awesome! What does that mean?"

Fred shifted, and made a somewhat uncomfortable face. "Well... I hope you don't mind, but... It means I'll likely have to keep working long hours for the next few weeks."

"Oh," Armin looked at the table, and Annie caught a glimpse of uncertainty before he shrugged. "That's alright, am I still allowed to visit you?"

Fred relaxed at Armin's reply. "Of course, they wouldn't take that away, especially _now_."

"Now that you're a team leader?" Armin grinned at his dad, feigning being impressed.

Fred held his chin up slightly and puffed his chest out, "That's right. You're looking at Team Leader Fredrich Arlert. Don't you forget it!"

Armin laughed out loud and opened the box of doughnuts. "Yes sir! This calls for celebration, sir!"

Annie watched with a ghost of a smile, which only broadened as Armin chomped down on a doughnut, getting glaze on his cheeks.

 _This is what a father/child relationship should look like_ , she thought absently, and then realized the weight of her words.

And suddenly, she forgot the doughnuts. She forgot the happy father and son. Her heart wrenched painfully, and she stepped away from the counter, her smile gone. She lifted her spear lightly and walked into the living room, close enough to listen to the conversation, but far enough that Armin wouldn't hear her.

She sat on a white leather couch that faced the fireplace and took a deep breath, holding it in. She held in her pain, slowly drowning it, vividly feeling every thrash and flail that it made, desperately trying to revive and attack her. It fought a good fight, but Annie was her own master. The pain faded as she forced it back with sheer determination, before she leaned back, sinking into the couch.

 _That's twice in a day. I've almost melted down twice today_ , she thought with resignation. _What is it with this place?_

\--

She watched Armin and his dad eat a few doughnuts (only two each, the absolutely disgraceful) as they chatted about their days. Armin didn’t say anything interesting except that he’d left his clothes at school had worn his gym clothes home instead. Fred told a few stories of workplace comedy, and then they bid each other goodnight as they went to their separate rooms. She followed Armin upstairs. She wasn't too shy to look away as Armin changed into pajamas, looking at his body with mild interest as he changed his underwear until she saw a few small, white lines near his hips, gradually becoming larger and darker as they traveled up his legs. There were perhaps six or seven little cuts on each leg.

 _Armin!_ She thought with a gasp, and stepped closer, only to step back with a blush. He _was_ naked, so she probably shouldn't get close. Then, she looked away altogether, realizing that she was suddenly bashful about nudity– something she'd never been embarrassed about.

She thought about the cuts instead. _Oh, Armin... What happened?_ And yet, the little lines had been even and orderly, clearly placed there purposefully. She felt a rush of gratitude that she’d come to this house when she did.

Armin finished dressing into some Captain America sweats and a blue tank-top, and sat back down at his desk to shut off his laptop. It was only about nine o' clock, but he seemed to be done with his homework, so –

"Wait," Armin spoke aloud, looking around the room. "Did you watch me change?"

Annie dropped her spear in surprise, causing an audible _Thump_ against the carpet. _Augh! That's- no! No no no!_

Armin looked pensive. "That's actually smart. Is one thump yes or no?"

Annie put her face in her hands, _Blast blast blast, no!! Well, yes, but no!_

"I guess you wouldn't actually be able to answer that, would you?" Armin chuckled, and then ran his fingers through his long, long blond hair. "How about one thump is yes, and two is no?"

 _Curse you, Armin Arlert, you are too smart for your own good,_ she narrowed her eyes and lifted her spear.

\---------

_Thump Thump Thump_

Armin laughed aloud. "What on earth does three thumps mean?!"

The room was silent, and for a moment, he was worried she'd gone again, so he spoke again, thrilled over this development. There _was_ something here!!

"Are you a girl?" He asked, looking towards the corner of the room, near the door.

A brief silence, and then an audible _Thump_ from a spot a little to the right of where he’d been looking.

He couldn't hold back the grin that spread across his face. "Are you my mom?"

_Thump Thump_

He shrugged, he'd figured that much out alone, but hadn't been able to stop himself from entertaining the idea of the blonde girl he'd seen earlier being the younger version of his mother.

"Do you know my mother?" He heard himself ask, not realizing he'd even considered that.

But the answer came.

_Thump_

His eyes suddenly stung as tears appeared, not spilling, but resting at the point of threatening to do so. "Is she okay?"

_Thump_

"Safe?"

_Thump_

"Happy?"

There was a pause, and then the answer.

_Thump thump thump_

"Does that mean..." he pondered for a moment, looking for a logical third answer next to yes and no. "You don't know?"

_Thump_

"Can she visit?"

_Thump thump_

He breathed out slowly. That was interesting. He had also figured that his mother wouldn't be able to come back for anything. He would have been able to tell if his mother was nearby, he decided. He'd recognize her presence anywhere.

His next question came easily enough.

"Are you here to help us?"

_Thump_

"Did my mom ask you to?"

_Thump_

"That makes sense, she's pretty protective. Especially of me," Armin replied, his heart still beating a little faster than normal. He thought furiously, worrying that the girl would leave if he wasn't fast enough to hold her attention. "So... I want to know what you are, so this might take a little while, and I want to ask this important question first. Am I going to run out of time to ask questions?"

_Thump_

"Soon?"

_Thump thump_

He sighed, and then began running through possibilities in his head of exactly _what_ was in his room. If she knew his mom, that meant it came from the same place that his mom went, right? And _that_ meant that this girl was good, because good and bad didn't exist in the same place in the afterlife... right? That seemed like a stretched-assumption, but he ran with it.

"Are you an Angel?" He asked.

_Thump_

"Are you the girl I saw earlier? In front of my fireplace?"

The silence stretched longer than any of the previous silences. She was probably surprised that he'd seen her. How had that even happened?

_Thump_

"God, you're beautiful," He said, and then his eyes widened in surprise. The room was dead silent, and he wished that there was another way for her to communicate with him than yes and no. Why did he say that?

_Thump Thump_

_Thump Thump_

_Thump Thump_

Armin's face twisted in confusion, "What?! I only saw you for a tenth of a second and I could ... tell! You're..." he trailed off before finishing with a blush on his face. "Beautiful."

He felt her leave, like a cold breeze suddenly sweeping away the warmth of his room.

\--------

She locked her jaw and walked downstairs, her stomach still doing flips. God, how had he done that? She could face down demons and monsters without a second thought, but couldn't take a compliment?

 _I'm_ not _beautiful_ , she thought adamantly, _Short and muscly don't look right. Plus my hair's messy. And I haven't showered in two days. And my nose is too big._

But _God_ , she loved being called beautiful. It made her skin tingle and her back shiver in all the best ways. Sometimes, Bertholdt called her beautiful, but it wasn't as nice as when Armin said it. Bertholdt was too much of a big brother to her to be anything but. When he called her beautiful, it was just to be nice.

Armin didn't have a reason to call her that, but he had, for no reason but to say it, as if it was satisfying to him to send her mind reeling and her body electrified.

She realized she was standing in the empty living room. She stood in the center of the room for a moment. _I haven't done enough snooping_ , she decided. _I will do that all night. Maybe I can find and kill this thing before the sun rises. Then I can leave._

She sighed, and then started her inspection of the house anew.

\-------

 The clock next to Armin's bed read 3:17 AM in dim red letters. He slept on his stomach, clutching the pillow with one arm, the other splayed off to the side beneath his covers. He was... calm. Still. He looked troubled, but not terribly so. Perhaps he was solving complicated puzzles in his dreams. He didn't move, save for the breaths that he released silently.

Annie knelt next to the window just as still, if not more so. She held her breaths as long as she could to feign being inanimate before releasing them slowly. Her eyes were trained up the street that Armin's window had a halfway decent view of. She didn't blink, her face cemented in a scowl.

And she saw it. Despair. The Demon itself. It was a _long_ distance up the road, and it had only been visible for a moment, but it had been there. It looked huge. Probably at least fourth tier, maybe higher.

She _could_ go after it, but that would mean leaving Armin alone, and for a reason she didn't want to address or explain, she didn't want to do that.

So she stayed in her position, stock-still, clutching her spear until she was certain that the demon wasn't coming back tonight.

\----

Armin's eyes fluttered open at 6:20, ten minutes before his alarm blared. He took a deep breath and sighed heavily. His sleep had been deep and restful, and so _good_. He arched his back slowly, squeezing his eyes shut to enjoy the feeling his spine sent him before slumping.

He rolled over with a groan and sat up, tossing his legs over the edge of his bed as he rubbed his eyes.

An hour later, he stood at the sink in the kitchen, washing a plate he'd eaten his eggs and toast off of, thinking about his restful sleep and his general situation.

Slowly, even with the warmth that still occupied his home, he felt the dull stress return. He would have to face Kenny after school today unless he thought of a good enough escape.

Could he do that? Kenny always seemed to know where he'd exit the building or which halls he'd take or what classrooms he'd gravitate towards.

He scrubbed the plate for a few minutes, vaguely aware that it had been clean for some time now.

His dad sipped a coffee at the counter, scrolling through something on his phone as Armin hefted his backpack and headed towards the door. "Hey, I'm leaving," Armin said, "I'll see you tonight?"

"Yeah," came the sleepy reply, "Probably not til late, though. New position and such."

"Okay," the younger blond said, "See you later!"

"Armin?" His dad called, stopping him.

Armin turned back to the kitchen with his hand on the front door. "Yeah?"

"I… I love you," his dad smiled warmly, "And I'm, uh... sorry I haven't been around as much. God knows I've been through hell the past two weeks. But I love you. And everything's going to be okay, alright?"

Armin beamed at his father, his problems at school momentarily forgotten. It was the most meaningful thing he had said since the funeral of his mother. "Thanks, Dad, I love you too." He opened the door, and a gust of brisk air swept in. The sun hadn't quite shown its face yet, but the morning light had begun shining over the nearby mountains in a spectacular array of orange and pink. He looked at it with wonder, and then looked back into the kitchen.

"Dad?"

"Armin?"

"Mom's okay. I know it. She's probably still taking care of us."

The man looked pensive, and then shrugged. "You know what they say. You can take the man out of the wild, but you can't take the wild out of the man."

Armin laughed. The world could take Sabrina Arlert away from her role as mother, but it'd never take the mother out of Sabrina Arlert. "Exactly. I'll see you, okay?"

Fred nodded, a hint of a smile at his lips as he sipped his coffee again.

\-------

Annie thought long and hard about the exchange between Armin and his father as she followed him to school. She stayed about ten feet behind him, watching him walk absently.

 _Did dad ever tell me he loved me?_ She thought bitterly. _I can't remember a single time he ever said it. He didn't act like it either._

She stopped herself from thinking too far along that line of thought, however. It only ever made her upset, and she'd already been on earth for seventeen hours.

 _Why didn't I go fight that Despair when I saw it?_ She huffed, and tossed her spear over her shoulder and into a small belt loop near the nape of her neck. Then she shifted the back end onto a little clip at the small of her back, which held the spear in place as she walked.

It was a good companion of a weapon. Before she joined the Military police, she'd never used a weapon like it before, preferring her fists and kicks. But boots and gloves didn't fight Demons, only pure silver and gold did that. So she'd chosen the spear, admiring its length and the opportunity it provided to stab enemies much taller than her, which for _her_ was a critical need, as she was quite small.

Her personal spear was shorter than most, but that was due to the fact that _she_ was shorter than most. The shaft thinned out at the top to become the viciously sharp tip, both of which were pure silver, and there were a few lines and embellishments of gold thread along the handles. She wore tight fingerless leather gloves to assist in gripping the weapon, which was about an inch in diameter at the widest.

The bottom end of the spear was currently just the dull end, but she could unscrew a long cap that revealed an extra blade, about a foot and a half long and one-edged.

She sighed as she left the weapon hanging at her back, which allowed her to snuggle her fingers into the confines of her hoodie sleeves and stuff her arms into her armpits. _Too cold out. I don't like mornings. I want a doughnut._

Suddenly, someone was calling Armin's name from behind them. Armin turned at the same time Annie did to see an energetic, brown haired guy come jogging up to the greet him. He was followed by a beautiful, midnight-haired Asian girl.

"Hey! You never texted me yesterday, what was that about?!" The guy asked, and Armin looked genuinely surprised as he smiled at the girl, who approached more slowly than her companion.

"Ohh, Eren! I actually forgot!" Armin said, and Eren raised an eyebrow, prompting further explanation. "Like, I _actually_ forgot, not just conveniently forgot. I'm so sorry!"

"It's okay, Armin," The girl said gently as she fell in step with the other two, "We just watched a movie anyway. But you would have liked it, it was about a girl who stole books in Nazi Germany."

"Huh," Armin said, "It sounds good. I'll have to borrow it."

"Good, because I don't want to watch it again," Eren grumbled, "It was so damn sad."

Armin laughed. "Because all stories end happily?"

They walked with companionable chatter as Annie trailed along invisibly. She caught the girl's name at one point, and decided that Eren and Mikasa were probably a couple. Eren looked at her more often than was necessary, and Mikasa's tinge of red at her cheeks (which matched the hue of her scarf) was a giveaway of how she felt about Eren's excessive glances.

Armin wasn't oblivious, but didn't address it.

 _Perceptive dork_ , Annie thought with something similar to fondness, remembering his comments to her last night, and her stomach did another flip. She fought off the smile that tried to reach her lips and yawned instead. She wasn't too tired yet, but she hadn't slept properly before coming to earth, thinking it'd be routine and simple to neutralise some rogue Demon. She was wrong, which she found she wasn't very upset about, but she _would_ need to get back to heaven to sleep sometime soon.

If she returned to heaven without completing her task, the protocol would be to send her back to try again after some sort of chastisement. That meant that she could finish school today with Armin, and then return to Heaven for some sleep. Then she'd return to this area to finish off Despair.

 _That's a good plan_ , she decided, and strayed closer to Armin unconsciously.

\-------

Armin thought about the girl. _Will she be at home when I get there?_ Maybe. She had been willing to answer some of Armin's questions, but then he'd brought up the fact that he'd seen her. It had probably been wrong to mention that.

She may have let it slide, but then he'd had to go and run his mouth, calling her beautiful, and then she'd disappeared.

It felt like he'd broken some sort of rule, as if seeing her was some kind of offence that he'd only made worse by addressing. Was it wrong to think she was pretty? Maybe. Were there rules about angels?

His breath caught in his throat. _Did I get her in trouble for talking to me? Oh god, I didn't even think of that!_

He wondered about it for the rest of the day, and found himself more than once losing focus in class when he thought he felt the warmth nearby.

"Armin? Are you there?" Jean's voice shook him from his thoughts, "You okay?"

Armin took a breath before looking at Jean with a smile, "Yeah, sorry, I was just thinking."

"Thinking about..." Jean peered to Armin's desk, "Titrates, huh?"

"Maybe, why?"

Jean looked skeptical. "No one smiles and frowns that much over titrates."

Armin chuckled, "What did you need?"

Jean rolled his eyes. "I was wondering what dilution we were supposed to be using with problem four. And six. Actually, could you just help me out with this whole damn worksheet?"

"Of course," Armin smiled, and felt his skin on his right arm tingle innocently, and he looked to the floor on his right. There was nothing there, but he could sense...

 _Oh, whoa, is she_ here? He thought with a burst of wonder, and Jean raised an eyebrow.

\----------

Annie had never killed so many demons in a single day.

Granted, they were minor, frankly pathetic demons, but little runts like Gossip and Deceit seemed to be absolutely _infesting_ the school Armin attended, and Annie was inclined to kill every wrinkly or scaly or sludgy creature she saw.

With a few, she'd been able to sneak up on them while they were preoccupied, but others she had to actively hunt and take down. They were no match for her– she'd been fighting since she was _born_. She'd long since uncapped the bottom of her spear to unveil the blade, which was more effective at fighting small demons like the assortment at the school.

While she hunted a first tier, four-foot Spite, she noticed that there were some specific students that it actively avoided. She didn't know names yet, but the little lizard-looking demon didn't go anywhere near several of Armin's classmates. She'd noticed earlier that most of the demons were repulsed by Eren and Mikasa easily, that Jean kid, a tall girl with freckles, a duo of troublemakers, and a good-natured, dark haired boy whose name Annie thought was Marco. There were probably others, but Annie noted to learn all the kids' names who seemed to unconsciously repel the little monsters.

She crouched behind a garbage can, eyes narrowed as she watched the same six-legged demon creep towards the cafeteria where some younger classmen were having lunch.

Just before she lunged out to hurl her spear, the creature bristled, visibly uncomfortable, before squealing loudly and fleeing back toward her. For a moment, she assumed it had noticed her and was attacking, and she went into a defensive stance before whipping out and severing the lizard's head clean off as it ran past her. The body stumbled and spilled gore onto the carpet, and the head bounced away, surprise still apparent on its ugly face.

She looked up to see the man that had caused such a reaction from the Spite demon. He was... short. His hair was dark, and his face was captured in a deep scowl that looked natural on him. He was dressed casually and aside from his short stature, there wasn't much to note of. But when Annie saw his eyes, she recognised immediately what had sent the demon scurrying.

They were dark. Not in an evil way, but in a way that reflected his raw inner strength, likely a mass of frothing willpower and determination. His eyes were dark in a way that said if he needed to, he'd kill to protect. They were dark in a way that reminded her of her own childhood, some twenty years ago, a childhood full of dark, intimidating, violent people. The difference was that his eyes weren't similar to the dark and intimidating and violent, but to those who stood against them. His eyes sent the clear message that if he had a task, he would complete it, full stop. He simply emanated a sheer _power_ about him that was as if could raise an arm and bring about a shattering stillness to quell time itself. His eyes spoke volumes of his character, and although they didn't actively look at all there was to see before him, it was clear that they permeated everything in front of, beside, and behind him.

Annie sat quietly, watching the man. He walked past her with purpose, and at first, she thought maybe he was a parent. But a lanyard about his neck showed he was staff, and she followed him. The classes were changing again, and the clock showed to be slightly half-past two.

The short, but deeply interesting man strode into a classroom; Annie read _Mr. Ackerman, US History_ on a square, blue plaque.

Annie paused, recognising the name. _Ackerman... why is that familiar? I swear that I've heard that name in Heaven somewhere before..._

She walked into the classroom, wondering if anything would give her a hint. Nothing did, but she did see Armin sitting down in a desk at the back of the room.

 _God, you're beautiful,_ her mind immediately replayed his words to her, and she couldn't help but feel the edges of her lips rise, if only marginally.

"Right, who wants to summarise yesterday's lesson on Fort Sumter?" Mr. Ackerman said levelly as he clicked around on his computer, raising a small remote that powered up a projector at the front of the room. His voice was not too deep, but it was flat and even.

Upon being called, the bald troublemaker boy from one of Armin's other classes spoke. "Right, so the yanks sent some reinforcements to the fort, which got the confederates all ticked off. Then, some general guy called for blood at like, four AM, and they shelled the place..."

The boy continued, but Annie had seen the slightest movement from Mr. Ackerman. His eyes were narrowed, as if suspicious of something.

Annie stood with _her_ eyes narrowed as well. The man had noticed her, she was sure of it. He probably didn't know what it was he had noticed, but he knew that something was off. She crouched, absently noting that she was invisible, and crouching brought no real benefit to her, but it felt right to cringe out of the man's piercing vision anyway.

Mr. Ackerman continued as if nothing had happened, his eyes returning to their flat, disinterested stare. “Good enough, let's move on to the First Battle of Bull Run. Who did the reading?"

\-------

When the bell finally rang, Armin decided to try his luck staying behind in History again. Mr. Ackerman wouldn't leave early two days in a row, would he? Plus, he wanted to see if his reasoning yesterday was right. Kenny would leave him alone if he stayed here, right?

But after waving Eren and Mikasa off to soccer practice, the quiet of the empty classroom was ruined.

"Arlert," came Mr. Ackerman's voice. "A question."

Armin looked up, surprised. "Sir?"

"Just a theoretical one. I thought you'd like it."

Armin smiled a little. Mr. Ackerman didn't seem the type to engage in theoretical discussion. "Okay, shoot."

"All this talk about war and killing people has gotten me thinking. What do you think makes people fight?"

Armin opened his mouth to ponder his answer aloud, but his teacher cut him off.

"No, don't answer yet, I want you to think about it. You're the smartest kid in the building, and I want a really thought-out answer, alright?"

Armin sensed an end coming, but nodded. "Oh-okay. When should I answer?"

"When you've got an answer, duh. Now, I have to go attend to some stupid parent who's pissed about their kid getting what was coming to them. I don't even care about the damn desk phone."

Armin's mouth opened, but whether to point out that he may _never_ have an answer as to why people fight, or that physical punishment from teachers _was_ legal in some parts of the United States, he didn't get to choose. The history teacher kept talking as he stood up.

"If everyone would just wipe their _own_ asses, Arlert, the world would be a better place. I already spend my days wiping hordes of student ass, I don't want to wipe some fucking parent's ass." He made a hand gesture to symbolise the wiping process should he have to practice it on someone else. His fingers were pinched together, and he flicked his arm upwards a few times.

Armin found himself laughing at the ridiculous analogy, even though the pressing issue of Kenny the Ripper was nagging at the back of his mind. His teacher's face held the barest hints at the ghost of a smile, and he waited for Armin to pack his things and walk out of the classroom before flicking off the lights and closing the door behind them.

"You live out towards the desert, up Skyline road, right?" His teacher asked as he pulled out some keys to lock his classroom, and again, Armin was surprised. Mr. Ackerman wasn't one for small talk, but here he was, asking about the general direction of Armin's home.

"Yeah, off Martin's way," he replied, and then caught hold of an idea. "Are you headed to the office?"

"Mmhmm," the man replied as the lock clicked. He shrugged the keys into his pocket, "Petra wants me there. She thinks that so long as I apologise, everything's fine."

"Physical punishment by teachers is legal in some parts of the country," Armin remembered as Levi began walking towards the front of the school. He followed him tentatively. _If I can't hide out in his classroom, maybe I can get an escort to the front doors? They're right next to the office_.

"I heard about a teacher in Texas who chopped her student's fucking head off like, twenty years ago," the history teacher deadpanned. "Maybe that'll be my argument. I'll point out that 'Hey, at least your son is _alive._ '"

"I think the purpose is to avoid the argument in general," Armin said, looking around at the students who chatted at each others' lockers somewhat shyly. They glanced at the teacher-student entourage and returned to their conversations.

"Don't forget what I asked you," the dark-haired man said, glancing at him. "Figure out why people fight. More important, figure out why _you_ fight."

Armin just looked at him. Did he know about Kenny? What kind of allusive comment was that? He had to be referring to something, right?

"I know why I fight, Armin," he continued, "and that makes retarded situations like this easy. I just keep my reason in mind."

"What is it?" Armin asked as the front doors of the school, and the office adjacent to them came into view. "Why do you fight?"

Mr. Ackerman's face didn't change, but he could swear that he saw something glint in the history teacher's expression. "I'll tell you when you tell me," he smirked.

\----------

The short man turned out to somewhat less enigmatic than Annie originally assumed. He made toilet jokes and swore with words that she hadn't heard since she died. Armin seemed genuinely pleased to have his company, though, so she was okay with him being around.

 _What, I'm in charge of who hangs out with Armin?_ She mused, dismantling her own possessive line of thought, trying to trace it back to when she had started wanting Armin to herself.

Well, “wanting him to herself” was probably too strong a way of putting it. She had always been an introvert, and it seemed like he was too, and she'd had _much_ more fun last night when he'd been asking her questions than she’d had with any of her friends in Heaven. Even though it had just been a few minutes before she spoiled it, she had enjoyed it thoroughly.

She probably could get in trouble for it at some point, if anyone found out. But Earth wasn't very heavily monitored in the first place when it came to keeping Guardian angels in check. On top of that, Shiganshina zone belonged to the Military Police, and negligence wasn't entirely uncommon.

So she could probably talk to him all she wanted, if she decided to do that. Which for some reason, she felt an urge to be able to continue. She _liked_ telling him things. She wanted him to want to talk to her, to ask her questions.

She sighed, looking at Armin's back with consideration. He was taller than the short teacher, maybe standing half-a-head above him. So Armin wasn't exactly a tower either, but Annie was petite too, who was she to judge? His extra-long blond locks were neat and even though she wasn't currently looking at his face, she'd spent enough time doing so to know that he was always brushing his hair to the side, out of his eyes.

Suddenly, she stopped, catching her breath. Something was wrong.

That air around her was getting cold. It didn't seem to effect Armin or his teacher, which meant that they likely didn't feel it. It was an unnatural decrease in temperature, as if the _real_ feel of the room was just behind this frigid front.

She released her breath at the same time she released her spear from its tie at her back. The small puff cloud that appeared in front of her mouth told her all she needed to know. There was, in the general vicinity of the school, a middle-class demon, likely one that had gotten strong after feeding off some individual for _much_ too long.

_So, do I go after it? Or do I stay with Armin?_

As she pondered on her choices, the shorter man waved to Armin and steered into a set of doors labelled _Office_ in large letters above the door.

 _Now Armin's alone, I can't leave him alone, can I?_ She grit her teeth. She'd left him several times throughout the day because he had been fine around his classmates. Now, if she ran off after some Deadly Sin or something, she could be leaving Armin in a _potentially_ (emphasis on potentially, because the odds weren't exactly high, given they were in the MP's jurisdiction, but she felt protective okay?) potentially dangerous situation.

On top of it all, Armin looked anxious, worse than she'd ever seen him. He stood, looking at the blue, steel, push-to-open doors with a fixedly uncomfortable expression. _What's wrong?_ She wanted to ask him. _Did that short guy say something stupid?_

Before she could work it out, Armin strode forward and pushed outside. She followed, still unsure about the cold that was nipping at her skin.

The moment they stood outside, though, the temperature dropped again, considerably. It was as if the whole city had up and moved north to Alaska to see what the weather was like.

Armin, however, wasn't paying attention to the chill that likely only Annie could feel. He had stopped altogether upon being called over by a group of metal-looking kids. Some of them clearly were not high schoolers, but graduates who simply had nothing better to do with their time than sit out in front of their old high school.

A tall, muscly looking guy had called out to Armin. He had a jaw strap beard and was wearing a flatbrim hat with a brown-suede jacket. He was well-dressed, even if it wasn't Annie's preferred fashion.

 _Annie, you wear a hoodie and jeans. You have no fashion,_ she told herself. _Anyway, what do these punks want?_

\-------

"Arlert! Caught ya again! And I guessed it right, you came out the front doors, ya _noob!_ " Kenny said, overjoyed at his own ingenuity. "I bet you stayed with Mr. Ackerman after class too, didn't ya?"

Armin took a deep breath. _Just play nice and do what they say. We're out front, so I can at least rest assured that I won't get beat up or forced out of my clothes._

"You're brilliant, Kenny," he said shortly, "How was school?" He asked the same question Kenny had asked him yesterday before their daily round of bullying.

\-------

"My day was fine!" The kid, Kenny, said. "But I'm just in a really tight spot, do you think you can help us out again?"

Annie bristled, listening to the conversation. Kenny was a dick, and she wanted nothing more than to punch his lights out, but she was distracted by the Demon in the area. The temperature and the general aura around her reeked of gasoline fumes and something like ... perfume? The combined smells weren't a good mix, it smelt like rosy gasoline.

And what was this guy doing? He clearly wasn't Armin's style of friend. His eyes held something insidious behind them and-

The Demon! Her eyes tracked the movement in the corner of her eye. The creature was atop the school, a writhing form making its way out of her sight on top of the gym, which was across the courtyard from where they stood. No one else saw it, but she could still see the reptilian tail slithering back onto the roof. It was long– Too long to be a tail.

 _Massive snake,_ she analysed, _everything's cold, it smells like diesel and perfume. This is a fifth tier Envy._

She didn't wait another second, launching off into a full sprint to give chase. Her mind immediately and automatically created a path to the roof: jump on the garbage cans, reach the window ledge, hook the spear on the roof to hoist up and swing onto the roof. Her body performed the steps with ease, and in an instant, she was crouched on the roof.

She rose to her feet, hefting the spear and taking off to clamber up the ladder that led from the roof of the main building up to the roof of the gym, which stood two stories higher.

By the time she reached the roof of the gym, she expected the snake to be gone. She was wrong.

\------

"How many times would we have to steal your clothes before you had to get a new wardrobe, Arlert?" Kenny jabbed, the pleasure of bullying apparent on his face.

Armin stood awkwardly. _This isn't so bad,_ he thought, _I wonder if he's distracted by something._

"I have an average wardrobe, so maybe eight or nine times?" Armin supplied, his heart thumping. Was Kenny even going to try today? What was going on?

\-------

Envy wasn't a Demon to trifle with in the first place. Being fifth-tier made it only more so.

Annie stood in an offensive stance, leaning forward with her speartip held threateningly towards the thirty-foot long, two-foot thick behemoth snake. Its graceful, lime-green form was accentuated by its slender, passive face. Its eyes were deep and black, like images she'd seen of space.

It sat, coiled non-threateningly, its head poised a few heads taller than Annie. It watched her simply, as if trying to feign nonchalance and peaceful intercourse with her.

Annie saw right through it. She took the first step, and Envy snapped into motion as well, lunging at the same time Annie did.

Its mouth opened wide, revealing several unnatural rows of venomous teeth. Annie sidestepped, swinging her blade at the creature's right eye. She missed, and twirled around for a second shot, this time with the vicious tip of the spear.

Envy saw both attacks coming, and swung its whole head to knock Annie clear off the roof.

Annie dodged just as easily, dropping to her back and rolling under the head that swung through the air with an almost audible _whump_.

She stood and crouched, raising the spear sideways to block the inevitable returning blow that came lower. When Envy's massive head came swinging back, it was met with a sturdy length of celestial Silver. Annie withstood the blow, her whole form straining to hold the weight of the serpent off of her.

From the corner of her eye, she saw the rest of the snake beginning to surround her slowly, and she swung a leg over the creature's head to straddle it. She gripped tightly with her thighs as the creature went into a fit of swinging and bucking. It rose high in the air, flinging its head back and forth, up and down. Annie fought for hold, and she fell forward to hold on, but instead smacked her face between Envy's eyes and was flipped across the roof before she was even sure what had happened.

She crashed to the ground with a shout, landing on her nape and skidding all the way to the edge of the gym, slamming into the short barrier on the perimeter of the roof. Somewhere in the tumble, she lost her grip on her spear, which bounced a few times before rolling up to the edge of the roof.

Envy turned on her as she rose to her feet shakily, pushing her hair out of her eyes. _This sucks_ , she decided, _Fighting after twenty-four hours is not fun._

But she stood tall, facing her foe with discontent malaise. Envy slid across the roof almost silently, its form twisting and curving, and Annie could feel the chilly air intensify as the snake drew nearer.

The spear was probably twenty feet away, clearly closer to the snake than to Annie. The serpent would be on her in an instant if she tried to run for it, but also would chow on her here and now if she stayed put.

She took a deep breath, and stepped up and backwards onto the short brick barrier in the corner of the roof, vaguely aware of the fifty-foot drop to the concrete behind her. Envy paused about ten feet away, its form tensing for the imminent strike, and Annie gave a small grin.

Envy struck at the same time Annie did. She flipped forward, _stomping_ on the snake's head, shoving it down. Envy's face crashed into the small corner that Annie had just vacated, sending a shudder through its whole body. Annie sprung away, darting for her weapon.

It was a race, and she knew it. She heard Envy rise the moment she had leapt away. The noise of her feet shoving her toward her weapon was instantly followed by that of Envy jerking at her like a bullet.

She dove at the last moment, grabbing the spear by the middle and spinning to shove it wherever she could in her enemy. Envy's own inertia rammed the spear straight up through its skull, the needle-sharp tip driving through the bottom of snake's jaw and up into its brain cavity. It let out a deep, grating wail, but Anne held on, bracing against the wall as she skidded back, forcing the silver weapon deeper into the monster's head, yanking and twisting to cause as much damage she could.

Envy ripped back, yanking the spear out of Annie's hands as it gave its death throes with a grating shriek. Finally, with a sigh, the great snake collapsed in a mess of serpentine meat. The monster fell forward, landing on the spear, which exploded out the roof of its skull, splattering chunky-red gore onto the rough white concrete.

\------

The day suddenly, if possible, felt warmer. Perhaps a cloud had moved or something.

Kenny cut himself off midway through a sentence, and everyone looked at him expectantly.

"Aw, know what, Arlert? Fuck it. Take the day off," he said, relaxing visibly. "Making you do funny shit is taxing on me, I don't want to do it today."

Armin's eyes widened. What? _What?!_ Kenny had never let him go easily before! All he'd done so far was insult his mother's name (infuriating, but not exactly new, and so, less-effective) and tease his ability to be so easily seen-through, (Again, irritating, but not new).

"Oh, okay," he sputtered, "See you guys later, then."

He walked away quickly. _What the hell happened just now?!_

\--------

Annie slumped back against the barrier as the demon began its rapid decomposition. She had to take a few deep breaths to still her only-slightly increased heart rate, and she took a moment to consider the dead serpent's beauty. Its skin was already greying, but the hulking form of the giant snake was impressive and not altogether unpleasant to look at.

Her heart stilled, she stood and walked over to the corpse with a resigned sigh. She wrapped her fingers around the bloody shaft with a grimace, and had to hold the body in place with her foot as she tugged on the spear, finally pulling it free with an audible _shloop_.

 _Time to go home_ , she sighed and walked to the edge of the roof, scanning the area for Armin. He was gone, which was understandable. The group of kids who'd called for him earlier were still there, and they were arguing about something.

 _I guess I'll just get back to the transfer zone_ , she shrugged. She expected to return after a proper rest and a berating for not bringing down Despair. But she had a few errands to run before returning here.

She sullenly climbed from the roof of the school, landing on the ground with an _umpf._ She found herself looking for an excuse to go back to Armin's house, but if she fought Despair _now_ , she'd get killed. She was _exhausted_ . Not that a twenty-four hour shift was particularly exhausting, but she hadn't slept more than two hours before deciding to come fulfil Sabrina Arlert's request, and that had been _after_ a thirty-eight hour shift.

So she began her walk back home slowly, her mind swimming in the events of the past twenty-four hours, and she realised she was actually looking forward to coming back.

_I'll be back, Armin. Wait for me._

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So we've discovered as a team here that I write long long long author's notes, but they aren't very important, so if you want to ignore them, you're not missing out on much. 
> 
> First, if you've read the official manga spin-off, Lost Girls, you'd know that Annie loves doughnuts, there was a side story where Annie goes on a hunt to find a doughnut before she goes to mess up the scouts. It's pretty great, go read it.
> 
> In fact, if there are any readers that want to draw Annie drooling over a box of Krispy Kremes, that'd be the ultimate best. Annie is so reserved all the time, but seriously, she loves doughnuts guys.
> 
> Also, I have a really good friend who always makes the point that if everyone wiped their own ass, we'd all be a lot better off. I think it's sound advice, and after the poop jokes that Levi makes in the manga a few times, I decided that he might be someone to make the same advice.
> 
> Actually, this bit with Levi was a little unanticipated, but I liked it so much I literally changed parts of the outline in the story's future because of it, lol. 
> 
> Next, Demons cannot physically harm mortals unless they're ninth tier or higher. Annie is comfortable leaving Armin without fighting Despair for this reason.
> 
> And finally, thanks for reading! I love writing this story, and I apologize if this chapter was maybe too damn long, but I think this is going to be the standard length for chapters from now on. From here on out, we're looking at probably weekly chapter posts, rather than daily scene posts (even though the scene-posting was fun, I think this is the smart way. Thanks LunaBloom again, lol). Thanks for all your love and comments, I appreciate them X 1000!!! 
> 
> See you next week!


	4. Dance with the Devil

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Armin feels the reality of Annie's departure. Annie discovers aggressive new leadership of her division of Military Police. Mikasa reveals some secrets.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Warnings: Horror Themes, Depictions of Violence, Intense Adult Language, Insinuated Rape, References to Suicide  
> (It's all pretty mild though, guys)

_That was perhaps the strangest day ever,_ Armin decided, walking alone. He had not only been _entirely_ distracted all day, which was uncommon for him, but he'd also been asked odd questions by Mr. Ackerman, and let completely off the hook by Kenny.

 _I'm certain she has something to do with that_ , he thought, _Kenny had been building up to some antics, and then had just cut off altogether? That makes no sense._

He considered it for a moment, and remembered the sudden feeling of warmth that had washed across the purlieu of the whole school. It had been similar to the warmth that had visited his home yesterday, the one brought by the Angel girl.

Where did she go? He didn't feel her nearby anymore, not in the slightest. _Did I do something wrong?_

His feet scraped along through the small piles of leaves here and there on the sidewalks to his house. He looked up at the trees with appreciative wonder. There were still some beautiful trees with an array of yellow-and-orange leaves that made the scientific half of Armin's brain begin working out the process that the leaves were going through.

The afternoon sun was threatening to begin its approach to the horizon, even though it was only quarter-to-four. It _was_ November, after all. The days were getting shorter, and the darkness was creeping in faster and faster until the days would be ending before Armin was even home from school.

_Darkness..._

Slowly, Armin was met by an unwelcome, yet oh-so-familiar feeling. It was entirely unconscious, but his steps slowed down by a fraction, and he stopped examining the colorful trees, choosing instead to examine the murky leaves at his feet, many of which were stomped flat and ripped against the pavement.

And then the weary tiredness engaged, and Armin wondered if he was going to flop on his bed and sleep when he got home. He didn't want to do much at all.

 _Oh, hell,_ he realized with a resigned sigh, _it's back._

He began his counter-attack with admittedly less energy than he should have employed. He had to remind himself of the measures he’d put in place ages ago with his psychologist. He took a deep breath and stood straight, looking up at the cloudy sky before pulling his phone from his pocket.

Just before he dialed Eren, the device began vibrating in his hand, making him jump somewhat in surprise.

He slid the phone open and answered the call, wondering what the odds were that he and Eren would decide to call each other at the same time.

"Hey," he answered, "aren't you at practice?"

"Hey!" Came the enthusiastic reply, "You answered! Yeah, Nanaba just let all the offense off easy today, since the defensive players are sucking ass, horseface especially."

"Great!" Armin said with a facade of energy he didn't quite have, "well, except the quip about Jean. But that means you guys are free this afternoon?"

"You got it, and you know what that means?"

"Am I going to get kidnapped?" Armin rolled his eyes. It was actually a good thing that he had Eren and Mikasa to keep an eye on him. He probably would have crumpled a long time ago if he didn't have friends who helped him keep his mind off miserable things.

"Bingo. Are you going to be at home?"

"Yeah," Armin kicked a leaf pile, watching a trio of cars drive past. The last car was tailing along farther behind the first two, and Armin had a surreal moment where he related deeply to the third, slower car. "You sure you two want me around? I don't want to be a third-wheel."

He'd said it before he remembered that they didn't know that he knew about their relationship, and wondered if he should recover. He decided not to, hoping to enjoy Eren's awkward realization.

It was _prime._

Eren was quiet for a moment, and Armin heard him try to cover the phone with his hand or something before he distinctly heard "Shit, Mikasa, he knows," before she replied with "I _swear_ he reads minds."

Armin actually grinned at that, remembering how relieved he'd been to hear that the two had finally realized how they felt about each other. The relief had been admittedly soured by the light of recent events in Armin's family, but he could still feel happy for them, even if it meant he was placed on the back burner for the weekend.

The phone muffled again, and then Mikasa's smoky voice spoke in his ear. "Armin?"

"Hey Mik," Armin smiled, enjoying the discomfort in her tone, "I know it's going on, but I don't want to actually see my two best friends share spit-"

"Armin, we're your best friends first, and just because Eren and I figured things out doesn't mean we don't want to be around you. You're not a third wheel, you're the damn handlebars."

Armin grinned weakly. Classic Mikasa, always saying exactly the right thing. "Okay, so what are we doing tonight?"

Mikasa sighed, audibly relaxing. "Well, _first_ , you and I are helping Eren with War History, since Levi told me he'd still fail Eren even if he was my boyfriend. And if he fails an elective class, he'll never get accepted to a decent universtiy with us."

"Which means we can't count on him passing the class just for being close to the family," Armin laughed, "Damn. Well, I guess I'll just go to.. the Jaegers' house?"

"Perfect," she said, "See you in a bit."

Armin said goodbye and hung up, blinking firmly before altering his direction slightly. He glanced up the road and crossed the street, deciding he didn't need to go home before heading to Eren's. Carla always had food ready for them, and everything he'd need for homework was in his bag.

 _Oh, wait, the laptop_ , he realized, and crossed the street again, back in the direction of his house.

Once he opened the door to his home, the first thing he noticed was how… _wrong_ it felt. The feeling was familiar, and had been prevalent in the house since his mother’s passing, but now that the Angel girl had come and gone, he could feel the difference. It was as if it wasn’t even his house anymore, like something dirty and crude had moved in. He immediately determined only to stay for enough time to use the restroom, grab his laptop and leave again. He even felt nervous about being there alone– downright paranoid, even.

Was there something waiting for him around the next corner?

Why was everything so quiet?

He suddenly was _not_ looking forward to going home tonight. His dad said he wouldn't be home til late, and with Fredrich Arlert, that meant _late_. Midnight at least. The idea of being home alone in the house at that hour was bad enough, what if he couldn't sleep? Could he make it through the night without breaking down?

 _Damn it,_ he thought, _why didn't she stay? She fixed everything yesterday, now things are just worse!_

He ran upstairs and stuffed the laptop in his bag, glancing over his shoulder. Did he hear something? A creak? He had to be imagining it, right?

The sun was going down.

He hurried to unbutton his pants and make his way to the restroom. Toilet lid up, he faced the wall and relieved himself, his back to the door. He glanced back, wary of the house that didn't feel as empty as it should have been.

Something was _definitely_ watching him.

 _God damn it,_ he thought, _is it her? No way, this is awful. She wasn't awful, she was warm and kind. What the hell is happening?_

His skin suddenly rose, and goosebumps rocked his body, and it had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that he'd finished with the toilet. He flushed, and he felt tears threaten his eyes. _God,_ he realized, _I am so scared, what's going on? I'm home, this is my house. No one is here, what am I freaking out about?_

Something creaked on the floorboards downstairs, the noise distinctive. He'd heard it a thousand times when his dad walked into the kitchen.

"Dad?" He called, and his voice cracked slightly as he trembled out the next words. "Are you... ho- home?"

When nothing answered, Armin hurried to his room and grabbed his bag, throwing it over his shoulder. He peeked out the window for a moment to see if anything was happening, but only noted that the sky was getting darker quickly. It would be dark shortly after he arrived at the Jaegers', he was sure.

For some reason, he made a mental note that he _could not_ be alone when the sun went away.

The stairs creaked, and Armin gasped, his skin prickling uncomfortably.

"D-dad?" He asked feebly, turning to look at the passage from the stairs to his room. "Is that you?"

Only silence and a slowly decreasing temperature responded. Nothing moved across the whole house.

And then, a noise send a chill rattling through his spine.

**Thump. Thump.**

_That is_ _not_ _her,_ he immediately registered, and jumped forward, slamming his bedroom door shut, closing himself in. He turned and threw his window open, his breath coming in short bursts. He felt absolutely no need to justify climbing out his own window, and climbed up onto the ledge, leaning out to grab a precarious branch that was just far enough that he had to jump to reach it.

**_......creaaaaak....._ **

Armin didn't turn to see the thing that accompanied the sound of his door opening, instead _leaping_ outwards to get on the branch. He slipped a little before getting his bearings, and scrambled away from his open window as quickly as he could, not looking back.

He made it to the trunk and quickly descended via a few sporadic branches, spaced just far enough apart to make for an easy path, wondering if he was overreacting. Surely he was imagining things?

When he touched the ground, he began sprinting away from his home, glancing back only once. What he saw made his skin crawl.

He was not imagining things.

His window was closing.

\----------

Annie stumbled through the transition portal with eyes wide, keeping her balance. The familiar sensation of falling that accompanied traveling from Earth to Heaven via portal was one that she wasn't sure she'd ever get used to.

She also didn't think she'd ever be used to the castle-like structure that housed the portals. They were lined up side-by-side, creating a wall of blue, mirrorlike portals that ran around the perimeter of the whole circular dome. Most people called it the Drawbridge, and it was one of three buildings in Heaven that could transport individuals back and forth to Earth. The one she stood in was called the Maria Bridge.

Security was established within the building to stop people from illegal travel that could lead to meddling on Earth, and Annie approached the desk that would open the gate to allow her to leave. She was the only body in the portal area, so she approached the nearest desk to scan back in.

"Annie Leonhardt, Military Police, returning from Shiganshina," she said shortly, handing the man behind the desk a small ID card to scan. He was two heads taller than her, which reminded her of Bertholdt's behemoth height. He wore the mini-jacket common to all Guardian Angels, and his was adorned with the Garrison patch. Annie had left her own jacket back home, and she wondered absently if that fact was going to be brought up.

The man glanced at Annie's face, matching it to the picture on the card. He turned to a computer and clicked a few times. "Any additional items?" He asked, glancing at her spear. The bottom cap was now screwed back on, and the weapon was drawn across her back.

"No," she said, patting her pockets absently. No contraband today.

"How long were you in Shiganshina district?" The man asked.

"Around twenty-four hours," she replied, and just saying the words out loud reminded her of how tired she was.

The man's eyebrows raised as he put the information into his computer. "You must be wiped," he commented.

She rolled her eyes as he handed her her ID back. "You wouldn't even believe it," she replied with a flat look. He threw the switch that opened the small gate in front of the entrance/exit, allowing her to leave the Drawbridge.

As she left the building, she took a breath of Heaven's sweet, crisp air as part of her idiosyncratic routine upon seeing her hometown again.

 _It's been years, and I'm still surprised that I made it here,_ she thought routinely, taking in her surroundings.

With the Drawbridge behind her, she stood on a small hill that allowed her a decent view of Heaven's biggest city, Archonia. It was the home to the Guardian Angels and millions of well-to-do individuals. Skyscrapers towered into the expanse of space above. In the distance, she could see foundation clouds significantly smaller than the one Archonia was situated upon, and some of them housed smaller towns and villages pleasantly atop them. Everything glowed peacefully, leaving no home to darkness anywhere, save inside buildings and in the uninhabited space above.

She started down a path, leading toward the Military police headquarters. She considered stopping by Pixis's pub, but decided that she was too tired. Maybe when she took down Armin's Despair, she'd stop by for some more Ashdraft.

"Annie! Hey, Annie!" A familiar voice called, and she turned to the side to see a familiar giant waving at her from an adjacent path. She would have continued on, satisfied with just waving back to Bertholdt, but he changed course to come and speak to her, so she stopped, giving a small wave, but leaving her face impassive.

"Hey, Annie!" He said as he approached. "Did you just finish another shift?"

She nodded shortly, trying to employ the ideals that had somehow earned her a place in paradise– patience, brotherly love, forgiveness, whatever. She had to fight not to get agitated by Bertholdt's simple friendliness, even though she needed to report before she could get some rest, and she didn’t want to waste time with small talk.

"How long were you there this time? It couldn't have been too long, given that we just saw you yesterday," he said, coming to a stop a little closer to her than she would have chosen.

"Twenty-four hours," she replied, and looked out at the surrounding buildings, both to avoid craning her neck to see his face, and to appreciate the view of Archonia. "I didn't really rest after seeing you guys. A newbody asked me to check on her son, so I did."

Bertholdt sounded surprised, "For twenty-four hours?"

She shrugged. "I also killed a tier-five Envy."

"What!?" He blurted, "Alone?! Aren't those predator-class? Giant snake? No way."

She hid a smile by looking away from him. _Yes way_ , she thought smugly, but simply said "Yeah. I was on my way to report now."

Bertholdt scoffed, and Annie looked around, still appreciating the city around her. It was a beautiful place to live, even if it made her feel lonely sometimes. She didn't have any family she knew nearby, and so she was often alone. She looked at Bertholdt, and then realized that this was one of the few times that she had seen him without his blond friend.

"Where's Reiner?"

"Getting yelled at by Captain Smith," Bertholdt sighed, "He accidentally activated a Destroyer out in Stohess zone. He didn't even have clearance to go out."

Annie shook her head, rolling her eyes. "He's definitely one of a kind," she said. _How did Reiner get on Earth without clearance?_

Bertholdt laughed, and then shuffled his feet awkwardly. He cleared his throat, and then spoke, "Anyway... Hey, what are you doing this weekend?"

She shrugged, not thinking much of it. She considered thumping her spear three times to say _I don't know_ , but Bertholdt wouldn't understand, so it would only be funny to her.

"I don't have any plans," she said, "So I'll probably work on Saturday and then go join the Choirs on Sunday, like everybody else."

"I love to hear you sing in the Choirs." He said suddenly, and then tensed.

Annie blinked profoundly, reigning in her irritation and breathing out a simple "Thanks," instead.

"There's actually a new sushi place out on St. Peter's," he pushed, changing the subject awkwardly, "Do you want to try it out on Saturday?"

She shrugged, wanting to stay noncommittal. She had no idea what she'd end up doing on Saturday, but she realized that she half-hoped to be back in Shiganshina, ogling doughnuts and answering yes/no questions for Armin.

 _That's weird. I'm weird,_ she decided, and then glanced at Bertholdt. "Sure. Does Reiner even like sushi?"

Bertholdt made a face, and shuffled again. "Well, he does, but I think he has uh, plans or something."

Annie glanced at him. He was typically awkward to begin with, which wasn't concerning to her, she was stony and quiet usually anyway, so she had her fair share of creating awkward scenarios. But now that she looked at his face for the first time during this conversation, he looked positively petrified.

 _Oh... ohhh..._ she realized, _I just agreed to a date._

She grit her teeth for a second, considering backing out. Would that offend him? She didn't want to hurt his feelings, could she just say no? Maybe conveniently remember some plans?

She deflated. Whatever. She could handle an awkward evening with Bertholdt if it meant good sushi, as long as that was all that went on. "Okay, well, tell me when to meet you there," she said and started walking away. "See you later."

"Oh, okay. Okay!" He sounded surprised, then excited. "See you around!"

She sighed internally, and rolled her eyes. _I wonder when I'd have to go to earth to be able to use it as an excuse to be gone Saturday night._

She made her way down the path and into the city quietly, trying and failing to focus on the scenery.

\---------

Armin arrived at the Jaeger house completely winded. He clutched his side, looking up the road where he had come from. Nothing seemed to be following him, but _damn,_ it had felt like it there a few times. He'd never run so far so fast in his life. Eren's house wasn't exactly close, a good twenty minute walk at least. He didn't know how long he'd run for, but it felt like forever.

He leaned over, breathing deeply and still clutching the stitch in his side that ached painfully.

 _What the hell was that?!_ He wondered, standing back up straight, remembering subconsciously that it was easier to get breath if you stood tall with your hands behind your head. He did so, panting loudly, unashamed. The street was empty, anyway. _It couldn't have been the girl from yesterday, right?_

"Armin?" Eren's voice came from his front porch, and Armin jumped in surprise. He and Mikasa were sitting on his porch swing giving him questioning looks. How long had they been there? "What were you running for? Are you okay?"

Armin's heart thudded, both in embarrassment and in exhaustion. He tried to wave Eren off as he walked towards the porch. "Hey guys," he said, trying to keep the fear out of his voice. "I'm fine, I uh-" he quickly fabricated a sane reason to sprint into the Jaeger's front yard. "Ymir's dog was out front again."

Eren grinned at the same time Mikasa scoffed.

"That dog is _so_ cool," he said at the same time Mikasa said "She needs to chain that stupid thing down."

Armin chuckled, but still glanced up the road, waiting for ... what? Something to chase him? Grab him? He shook his head and put his arms back down, stepping up to Eren's porch to sit in a chair separate from the swing that the other two were slouched on. "It's not so bad," he said, "It just barks _so loud_ , it made me jump, and then I just... ran."

Eren laughed, "It's a freaking mastiff, it barks like a fog horn."

Armin remained wary, glancing back up the road. "Yeah, I'm glad there's a fence."

"I didn't hear it barking," Mikasa noted with mild interest, "Odd."

Armin shrugged, keeping his eyes away from her. "Yeah," he said, "weird. Ymir doesn't exactly live close, though."

"Yeah," she nodded, "True."

\----------

"Miss Leonhardt, this is unprecedented," Captain Christoff Sanderson said, looking over his full-rim glasses at where she stood across from him. He held her one-page report in front of him loosely, his wrists resting on his large, sepia-colored wooden desk. "Surely a Military Policewoman with as much experience as you have would be able to hunt down a mid-tier Despair in under twenty-four hours?"

He was a middle-aged man, with an impressive amount of waxy-black facial hair. It was slicked out to a point, and while it was a fine looking beard, on a face with equally fine features, Annie found herself giving him her habitual flat look. Apparently the man was new, his job to supervise the squadron of MP's that Annie was assigned to.

"It was elusive, sir, which I stated in my report. I only saw the Demon once, and it was at a time of night when I deemed it unsafe to leave the subject alone."

"You were in _Shiganshina,_ were you not?" He replied, setting the page on his desk and leaning back into his black-leather chair. Behind him, a floor-to-ceiling window showed another impressive view of Archonia spanning out below them. His eyes were stone-grey, and his attitude was even stonier.

"I was, sir," she said, "But if you note the amount of demons in the high school, you'll see that I was justified in my decision."

Captain Sanderson outright scoffed. "That's a _high school_ , Leonhardt. It will be crawling with Demons no matter where it is. I'd bet money that there's at least _one_ demon in every high school on Earth. Not to mention the fact that you hadn't even _been_ to the high school yet when you determined not to make pursuit after the subject's tormentor."

Annie blinked, becoming nervous. She'd assumed– wrongly, it turned out, – that reporting her failed shift would be no problem, but here she was, getting questioned by a new MP official she'd never met before. An official who had the power to change things. She'd never received disciplinary action once she'd been permitted to operate alone. What would they do to her? They couldn't do much, right?

"Sir, I can assure you that if I had had a safe opportunity to kill that Despair, I would have not hesitated to do so -"

"It seems to me, Miss Leonhardt, that you would have had the safe opportunity you wanted if you had a team of officers with you, as is the standard for the Military Police. Others could have protected the subject, and you could have done your duty and hunted the creature down. But as you work alone, you should have understood that your duty to eliminate threats is greater than your duty to puppy-guard. Beggars cannot be choosers."

Annie's heart skipped a beat, her blood chilling. What was he insinuating?

"Your position as a Solo-MP is intriguing, Miss Leonhardt, and although I am new to my position, I can hardly sustain it if you spend a full day unsuccessfully hunting a single demon," he said levelly, entwining his fingers together. "And here you are, asking for another chance. Why should I send you to handle the situation when you have failed, and there are capable officers asking for more hours on earth?"

Her eyes were wide now. She had _not_ seen this coming. She took a deep breath, and tried a new tactic. It was time for some humility. Another one of those scruples that had been determined she’d had enough of to be accepted into heaven.

"Sir," she said, "You're correct, this is my fault. I attempted this shift thinking it would only take a few hours, but the demon was more capable than I anticipated. The main factor hindering me was that I arrived on Earth with only two hours of rest. Previous to that rest, I spent thirty-eight hours in Olbd zone on another shift. It was reckless, sir, and it won't happen again."

Christoff listened, and seemed pensive. For a moment after she finished, he sat silently, staring at her, his gaze wandering from her eyes to the baby-blue wall behind her, to the paintings of Bible stories mounted in his office. He rose to his feet, his wheeled desk-chair making just a little noise on the plastic floor-pad beneath it. He turned to the window behind him, stepping to it slowly.

For another moment, he surveyed Archonia, before he spoke in his bass-toned voice. "You're right, that _was_ reckless. I'll waive the consequences and send you back to Shiganshina, but if you return fruitless again, you will force my hand into putting you into a team. Am I understood?"

Annie sighed, releasing a breath she didn't know she had been holding. "Yes, sir."

"Go and rest," he said, keeping his eyes on Archonia's pleasant glow. "And thank you for the work you're doing."

\----------

"Get some!" Eren cheered, and Armin's character on-screen exploded in a spray of viscera.

"I hate this game," Mikasa said, wincing at the gore on the screen. "It's just gratuitous blood and organs. I've seen that woman torn in half three times now."

Armin set down his controller flatly. "I think that's why Mortal Kombat is Eren's favorite game."

Mikasa grimaced again, and swung a leg over Eren's. "What happened to Mario Kart? I want to play a game where no one gets their heart ripped out of their chest."

Eren sighed, and tossed his controller onto the bed behind him. He and her leaned comfortably against the bed that Armin was draped across, and all of them faced a mid-sized screen playing Eren's PlayStation. "What time is it? Six? Damn, we probably ought to start on the homework we said we'd start two hours ago."

"We tried, dummy, but you turned on the game," Mikasa said, flopping her head on his shoulder. She was clearly trying her best to not be all over Eren, and she'd done well for the past few hours, but Armin could tell that she was slowly breaking.

 _What's it like to be so in love with someone that it eats at you to sit by them but not touch them?_ Armin wondered. He'd had a few crushes, but he'd never been so head-over-heels that he couldn't help but be affectionate with them.

He looked at the backs of their heads with a small smile. He flopped backwards and pulled his phone out of his pocket, waiting for someone to start on homework before he personally got his laptop out. He didn't miss the look that Mikasa gave Eren, however, as she looked up at his face. She was absolutely smitten.

Armin couldn't see Eren's face out of the corner of his eye, but he knew Eren was just as smitten with her. Hell, he knew his best friends better than anyone, and he had known months ago that their friendship was becoming something more than that. God knows how many times Armin had told Eren to just go ahead and tell her, but he'd always been able to procrastinate it or figure out an excuse. He'd been nervous, but something had just clicked over the weekend that Armin had yet to hear about, and they'd probably tasted each others' mouths and– ugh, as sweet as it was that they were happy, Armin didn't have to love the idea of them kissing.

 _Will I find someone like that?_ He wondered absently, switching between apps slowly to pretend he was actually doing something. _Or am I more likely to settle down with some books? That wouldn't be so bad._

But the way Mikasa's eyes drifted into bliss when Eren threw an arm over her shoulder told him that he actually _did_ want to find someone who made him that happy. But that's normal, everyone wanted that, right?

"Do you guys believe in Angels?" He heard himself ask, and then made a face. Why did he ask that?

"Sure," Eren said, "Mikasa's right here."

Mikasa's face went such a shade of pink that she even lost ability to speak for a moment.

"God, you had to say it,” Armin said, now dedicated to his question, “Okay, but moving on now, do you think that there are people on the other side looking out for us?"

Eren chuckled at Mikasa's breathless expression, and then shrugged. "I think I have people looking out for me, sure. How about in my accident last year?"

Armin nodded, "You think there were angels there?"

"It was an eighteen wheeler versus my Hyundai," he replied, "I should be dead, but here I am, complete recovery. Angels would be a good explanation for that."

It was a good point. Eren had been incredibly lucky to survive a collision with a rogue semi-truck, and he'd made it out with two broken femurs and a punctured lung, but in the scheme of things, he'd been lucky to get out without permanent damage.

Mikasa was visibly uncomfortable remembering the tense few weeks when Eren had been tended to by the local hospital; "I'll note to thank them for that," she said quietly. Armin noted that her parents had been killed by a similar accident, although he couldn't remember the details.

They sat quietly for a moment before Armin took a shaky breath. "What about demons?"

Silence reigned, and he wished he hadn't asked. But then, Mikasa responded.

"Yeah," she whispered, tossing her other leg over Eren's, "They're real."

Eren looked at her with underlying concern, an eyebrow raised fractionally. But he was quiet.

"I need to tell you guys something, then," Armin said quietly. "And then you tell me what you think."

\----------

Annie walked into her barracks with complete intent to murder anyone who got between her and her bed. Her spear was even in her hand. She was _tired_ , and anyone who wanted to talk to her would have to deal with her exhaustion at its worst.

"Annie! There you are, I haven't seen you in _days_!" Hitch addressed her, "Where on Earth have you been? Get it?" She burst into a fit of laughter. "Where on earth?"

Annie didn't so much as slow down, "Leave me alone."

"Hey!" Hitch feigned hurt, "I'm not just making small talk, people were worried about you; you were supposed to be back two days ago!"

"I'm fine," Annie retorted, stopping at her bunk and realizing that she would have to remove her clothes before going to bed. She laboriously threw her hoodie over head with an aggravated sigh and began undoing buckles.

"Not good enough!" Hitch said, "I am _technically_ your team leader! I want a full report! What's been going on with you? Do you ever take a break?"

Annie didn't even have the energy to be irritated properly. "I succeeded in Olbd zone, used a spark-net trap to capture and kill a horde of Starvation. Then I came back and slept a little before going to Shiganshina to ..." she trailed off as she kicked off her boots, trying wearily to come up with an explanation of the past twenty-four hours. "Uh, kill things."

Hitch hastily sat down at her desk next their bunk-beds. "And were you successful?"

Annie got her pants unbuckled, but gave Hitch a tired, incredulous look. "When did _you_ start _reporting_?"

Hitch sighed, "Marlowe is rubbing off on me, and that new guy has been on everyone's butts about reports and being responsible. I guess he intends to clean up the MP's."

"The Christoff Sanderson guy?" Annie asked.

"Yeah, he came in and introduced himself to all of us while you were gone. He's a no-nonsense fellow," Hitch said quietly as she scribbled on a piece of paper, "Were you successful in Shiganshina?"

Annie rolled her eyes, cursing the question. But she'd already reported to base of squadron operations, and so she couldn't tell a different story now. "No," she said shortly as her pants fell on the floor unceremoniously. She stepped into sweats quickly, feeling slightly self-conscious.

"What?!" Hitch's head snapped to look at her. "What do you mean?"

At this point, Annie was _actually_ considering committing murder. "I mean that the demon I arrived to neutralize got away. I'm going back tomorrow."

"Sanderson's letting you try again?" Hitch asked, and whistled when Annie nodded. "You must have said something right."

"He threatened to make me work in a team if I fail again," she replied, throwing her shirt over her head, leaving her in a tank-top with a sports bra underneath. "So I won't. Report that."

Hitch didn't ask any more questions. She finished writing and then bid a quiet goodbye when she left. Annie finished changing into comfortable sleeping clothes, and sat on her bed, lowering her head in silent prayer. She had to fight to keep consciousness and focus, but finally flopped over to appreciate the softness of her blankets and her pillow.

 _Would you like to try working alone?_ She remembered Nile Dok asking her. _It seems that the issues in your group are revolving around the fact that you don’t play well with others._

She'd been overjoyed at the prospect. Her last team was a bunch of idiots, anyway. She'd flipped them all.

 _You seem capable enough to do the work of five people on your own, anyway_ , her commander had said as he filed up the paperwork necessary to allow he to work solo. It was unprecedented, but he had taken a few notes from Erwin Smith's book of success with the Scouting corps, and had begun doing more and more unprecedented things, and the Military Police was slowly recovering from years of neglect and mild corruption. As corrupted as an organization could get in Heaven, anyway.

Would Commander Dok let Sanderson nullify his arrangements for Annie? Probably. He had a force of over ten thousand troops now, he hardly had time to deal with Annie's problems. She couldn't rely on him to help her out of this.

 _No, I just have to succeed when I go back tomorrow,_ she thought heavily as sleep overcame her. _Otherwise, I'll never see Armin again._

\-------------

"No shit," Eren muttered. The bedroom was quiet after Armin's relation of his experience in his room earlier that day. He'd held back everything about the mysterious girl. "You're not making this up? The window was fucking closing by itself?"

Armin took a shuddery breath. It had been one thing to be spooked, but relaying the story to Eren and Mikasa had made him feel like he was telling some kind of lie. But it had happened; he'd climbed out his _window_ , it had been so real. "That's why I ran into your yard, I was _so scared_."

The sun was far behind the horizon, and the last rays of light were fading away. Mikasa stood up and turned on the light in Eren's room, bathing the room in a refreshing glow. It was a small thing, but it was still a relief from the darkness that had overrun the room.

"What did your house feel like?" Mikasa asked quietly.

"It felt _wrong_ ," he said instantly, remembering the feeling he'd had upon entering his own home. "Like it wasn't even my house. It felt like I was trespassing, and there was something watching me the whole time."

Mikasa took a shaky breath. "Armin... This is real. I believe you."

"Well, duh, Mik!" Eren said exasperatedly, "Armin doesn't run for anything! Er, no offence, Arm." He glanced at him apologetically, "He's fucking getting haunted!"

"No, I mean, I need to tell you something," she said, sitting on Eren's desk chair, avoiding both of their eyes."

"Huh?" Eren asked, confused, "What do you mean?"

Armin looked at Mikasa questioningly. She was sitting seriously, her eyes deep and far away and filled with... pain.

"Are you okay, Mikasa?" Armin asked, "God, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to freak you guys out-"

"No, just give me a moment," she cut him off.

They sat quietly, and Eren gave Armin a flummoxed look.

 _I should have kept it to myself,_ he thought, biting his lip. _What kind of friend just dumps this kind of thing on his friends without warning?_

"Do you guys remember when I moved in with Levi?" Mikasa asked suddenly.

"Sorta," Eren said, "How old were we? Like, ten?"

She shook her head. "I was seven. I moved here from Virginia after my parents died."

Armin nodded, his memories hazy, but the important points were clear. Mikasa's parents were killed in some sort of freak car accident, and Mr. Ackerman (or Levi as she referred to him), Mikasa's paternal uncle, had swooped in and adopted her immediately, bringing her back home with him.

"Yeah, because of the accident, right?" Eren asked softly.

Mikasa paused, and even though it had been the story for almost ten years now, it was clear to Armin by the look on her face that it wasn't true. What had happened?

Finally, she shook her head. "No," she said, "There was never an accident."

Eren and Armin shared a look. Eren's face conveyed a mix of surprise and intrigue, as well as sensitivity. Armin's was more interest and empathy.

It was another moment before she looked up and out the window. It was only approaching seven o'clock, but night had arrived. "My parents were murdered right in front of me."

Armin's jaw dropped, his eyes widening.

"Holy _shit_ , Mikasa," Eren said, moving to stand up to get close to her, but she raised an arm, sending a silent message to stay where he was.

"I'm _so sorry_ ," Armin whispered. How long had she been carrying this around? How many times per day did that image, whatever it was, flash behind her eyes?

She took another shaky breath. "Demons are real. Armin, what you just described was a perfect explanation of the day that I walked into my house with my parents for the last time."

 _Oh God_ , Armin thought with distress, _What have I done? Did I push her into telling us this?_

"Hey," he said carefully, "You don't have to tell us this if you don't want to. It can't be good to dig it up now-"

She cut him off with a look alone. Her eyes were pained, but determined. A fiery, Ackerman-style determination. There was no stopping her now.

"I'm going to tell you everything," She said, "but please don't ask me to stop. I've wanted to tell you for years. This is a good time."

Armin only nodded, sitting back on Eren's bed.

"I remember that on the way home, we were talking about how Levi was coming to visit the next day," She began again. "Once we got home, it was as if the house wasn't even ours, exactly like you said. I remember wanting to turn around and leave right away. But we walked in, even though I could tell that my parents sensed something too.

"We had come home from a movie. We'd gone to see some Disney movie. Thank God I don't remember which one it was, or else I'd probably hate it," she said bitterly. "But it was late. A Friday night. My dad locked the door behind us, and we walked into the family room. There were five or six men waiting for us. And there was... _something_ else there too. Something big and evil. I think I was the only one who saw it.

"The men... well. My dad walked in first, and he was shot immediately. Then some men grabbed my mother and I from the sides, and they dragged my mom off..." Mikasa's voice broke as the first of her tears threaded her cheeks. She covered her mouth for a moment, looking away from the window. She raised a hand to stop Eren again, and he made a pained sound, but stayed down.

"I didn't understand then, but I could hear her screaming from the upstairs bedroom," she said eventually, and Armin shivered.

 _What the fuck?!_ He cried mentally, _I thought you only read about this! Heard about it! Mikasa saw it in front of her and she was seven! What the fuck?!_

"And that whole time, I was _so scared_ ," Mikasa said, "Not that they would hurt me, but it was like I had this awful terror that wasn't even real or mine. I wasn't scared that they were going to hurt me, I didn't even understand that that's what was going on. But I remember..." She paused, sniffling. "That that _thing_ kept getting _closer to me._ I could _feel_ it."

The room was more than silent. It was deep and horrified. Mikasa wept into her hand for a moment, her eyes squeezed shut. Eren's eyes were harrowed and shocked.

"When they brought my mom back, she was dying. I don't know exactly what happened, but she was bleeding and ... didn't last much longer. And that was when I _saw_ the thing that was there with us. It was this huge black bear-dog thing, and I saw it for a full three or four seconds. It knocked a lamp over, and the men blamed it on me. They couldn't see it.

"And then, everything was _so loud_. Levi showed up early, and he caught the guys by surprise..." She trailed off, raising her knees in front of her. She hugged them tight, her eyes still leaking copiously.

"He killed all of them," she whispered. "I don't remember much after that."

Armin couldn't imagine it. Mr. Ackerman kicking a door down, killing seven men, probably brutally. Protecting his niece. Bringing her home to live with him. Mourning his brother and sister-in-law.

"Demons are _real_ ," Mikasa said, "That creature I saw was one. Those men who killed my family were ... affected by them. I think I've noticed them other times, too. I just... I can't-"

She finally broke off, bursting into sobs. Eren couldn't stop himself anymore, and rushed to her, kneeling by her side and wrapping his arms around her. "Hey, Mikasa, it's okay now, I'm here, I'm here."

Armin sat back, putting his hands through his hair. It took him a moment to realize that he, too, was crying. He felt a conglomerate of emotions. Pain, _God_ , so much pain. Pity, for Mikasa and the terrible burden she'd been carrying. Awe at Mr. Ackerman's timely rescue. Fear, for the demons that brought so much pain. Rage at Mikasa's attackers. Relief for her empathy at his earlier terrible experience at home.

He wiped a tear from his eye and stood, walking over to Mikasa and giving her a hug as well.

"We're here for you," he whispered, "We love you. Thank you for telling us."

She cried for a long time.

\--------

A few hours later, everyone was calm. They sat quietly, attending to homework half-heartedly. Armin couldn't bring himself to focus on Calculus, no matter how much time it took in his schedule.

 _I don't want to go home,_ Armin stressed. _Is it even safe there anymore?_

Suddenly, a soft knock came at the door. Carla Jaeger stepped into the room, and spoke softly. "Mikasa, Levi's here to pick you up. He's waiting downstairs."

Mikasa sighed, and began gathering her things, untangling her body from Eren's on the ground, where they studied together. "Okay, thank you, Carla," she said shakily. She had only stopped crying around half an hour ago.

It was clear that Carla understood what was going on. She was an insightful woman. She left them alone to say goodbye, and Eren stood to pull her into a deep hug. "Mik, I love you. God, I love you."

She hugged back, and Armin watched from his spot in the corner. She gripped him tightly, burying her face in the crook of his neck. Eren held her close, nuzzling her head with his nose and lips. They stood for a moment as if they were the only ones there before she let go, wiping her eyes and walking out of the bedroom.  

As Armin pondered on Mikasa’s situation, he eventually realised that the Jaegers might want Eren to themselves. Would he be expected to leave as well? He didn’t want to go home tonight; in fact, he would stay until tomorrow if he could.

 _What about Dad?_ He worried, _I can't let him be home alone, can I?_

Armin stood and watched from the stairs as Mr. Ackerman said goodnight to him and Eren as Mikasa followed him out the front door.

 _That man's killed people_ , Armin noted surreally, and then brushed the thought away.

Once they were alone in Eren's room upstairs, and neither Carla nor Grisha made any hint at Armin’s departure, it was Armin who spoke first after a long silence. Eren sat at his desk, reading the assignment for War History.

"Can I ask you a favor?" He said, standing at the window.

"Yeah, anything," Eren replied, looking up from his desk.

"Can I stay here til my dad gets home?" He asked, looking down at the papers in front of him. He was met with silence as Eren pondered the question.

"Do you think that... thing's still at your house?" Eren asked, turning to face him.

Armin bit his lip. Did he? "I think it is. I think it's been there for a long time, to be honest."

"Why?" Eren replied, and Armin was suddenly grateful for his best friend. Eren wasn't prying to judge or make an assessment, he had a genuine desire to understand.

"Remember how I described my house? How it was cold and terrible earlier when I was there?"

"Yeah, has it always been like that?"

Armin shook his head, watching a motorcyclist ride past the house. "No- well, sort of. Mostly for the past... few weeks."

Eren was quiet for a moment. "I bet you've been feeling like serious shit, considering you've probably been fighting depression this whole time as well."

Armin's fists tightened for a moment before releasing. "Yeah... but _yesterday_ , I got home, and it was different."

"Worse?" Eren asked.

"No, better. Beyond better. The house was so... warm. And good. I even thought that my mom was visiting for a while. But... I started hearing things."

"Holy _shit_ , Armin. Why haven't you said anything til now?" Eren wasn't upset. He was incredulous, but believing. And probably irritated at having been left out of the loop.

"I thought I was losing it, to be honest," he replied apologetically, "But... well. I think there was an Angel in my house yesterday, and that scared off whatever's been there for so long. For some reason, it left after school today, and that was when the thing in my house got aggressive. It probably didn't like an Angel being around, so when it left, it ... yeah. I don't know."

Eren was quiet, pensive. "So you're the turf in some weird turf war?"

Armin chuckled sourly. "I don't know. But the Angel's gone now. I tried talking to it, and it left."

"You tried _talking_ to it?" Eren asked, "What the hell?"

Armin mentally smacked himself. "Yeah... just yes or no questions. I thought it was talking back, but... I don't know."

Eren took a deep breath and looked back at his desk. He tapped his fingers for a minute and opened his phone, presumably to text Mikasa.

"Yeah."

"Yeah what?"

"Yeah, you can stay til your dad gets home."

Armin breathed a sigh of relief.

"But you have a lot of explaining to do," Eren said.

\------

She dreamt about him.

She stood in a rocky terrain, and her view of her surroundings was hazy, like some sort of ethereal fog was restraining her from seeing further than the boundaries it set.

As she stood, questioning her surroundings, the sun, which had begun at about noon-height, took an _intense_ swan dive, plunging towards the horizon, causing the entire scene to go dark astonishingly quickly. Suddenly, it wasn't just the mysterious fog that was choking her sight, it was the darkness as well. It closed in like a hungry predator, intent on ripping her eyes out, leaving her completely devoid of sight.

Annie stumbled over a rock as she stepped back in confusion and fell hard, bruising her lower back. She squeezed tears out of her eyes despite her inner resolve that _she was okay._

As she sat in pain and dismay, there came a quiet _step step_ ping noise, which crunched through the gravel-boulder mixed hill she sat upon. She could neither see who was coming, or discern which direction they were coming from.

The first thing she noticed was the light. It came around a large boulder. It was bright and ultra-effective at driving out the oppressive darkness. She found herself drawn to it, as it if had some sort of enigmatic power. A face came around the boulder, and she recognized Armin immediately. He was wearing a brown cloth hood, and he carried a lantern that was doing more than simply illuminating the place where they stood; it even _drove the fog away_.

 _How are you doing that?_ She wanted to ask, but remember that he couldn't see or hear her. She grit her teeth in frustration.

But instead of his eyes passing over her invisible position, he looked right at her, giving her a questioning look.

"Why are you on the ground?" He asked, "are you okay?"

Her eyebrows shot up; she was astounded. "Can you see me?"

He laughed and walked to the spot where she sat uncomfortably against a rock. "Of course, we're both _here_ , aren't we?"

She nodded. Why wouldn't he be able to see her again? She couldn't remember. "Right," she said, and she suddenly wanted to help _him_. He was driving out the darkness, how could she help him? She suddenly had an idea. "Do you know your way out of here?"

Armin shook his head. "I don't even know where I am. I'm trying to go to where my mom is. But I’m not strong enough to get there. And I don’t know how to get anywhere, really. I have this lantern, though. We can use it to see."

Annie nodded, "Well, where do you live?"

"I live on Martin's way, do you know it?"

She nodded. Now that she could see, she could make sure they got to Armin's house safely. She tried to stand, but suddenly realized that the pain in her back was too much; she couldn't walk.

"Wow, it looks like you're hurt," Armin said, concerned. "Can I take you to your home?"

Annie's skin bristled. Armin could _not_ come to her home yet. He wasn't ready. She shook her head. "No, sorry, I can't take you there."

Armin looked positively distressed. "But you're hurt... and I think my mom lives where you live. Can't I go there with you?"

She shook her head adamantly. "I'm really sorry, I promise we'll go to my home one day. Together."

He relaxed visibly, but still looked apprehensive.

"And if you let me guide you home..." she continued, "I'll stay with you until you're ready to come to _my_ home, okay?"

Armin paused, biting his lip, obviously happy with the idea of her staying with him. He slowly nodded, and then crouched down to lift her up. When he touched her, she felt electricity between them, and she looked at his face, intrigued. What was this feeling?

Armin also looked intrigued. He shifted his hold on her, one arm under her knees, and the other behind her shoulders. She slung an arm around his neck, and she couldn't help but stare at his face. He was amazing and perfect.

As she gave him directions to his house, the rocky terrain about them melded into familiar looking houses, and as his house approached their vision, she felt comfortable enough in his arms that she put her head on his shoulder, listening to him breathe...

He was snoring.

Wait, what?

Annie woke with a jerk, her hand swinging out suddenly. She lay in her bunk in the MP Barracks. The room was dark, and Hitch lay on the bunk beneath her; her breath catching in her throat as she slept, and her snore sounded like a piglet.

Annie pulled her arm back under the covers, tugging the fluffy blanket around her. She pulled her knees up to her chest and rolled to one side, nuzzling her face back into the cozy-warm pillow.

It wasn't long before she was back asleep.

\------

_Where are you? I'm home now. It's weird to be home alone._

Armin read the text with relief. "My dad's home," he said to Eren.

"Damn, your dad works so freakin' late," he replied with a yawn. "It's midnight. You headed home then?"

He nodded, wondering again how he was going to get home in the dark. It wasn't a short a walk, and he didn't want to walk out into the night alone.

Eren seemed to read his mind. "I'll drive you home, if you want."

He didn't have his license: something that would have bothered Armin any other time, but tonight, it was a relief. They snuck out the front door once Eren had snagged his mother's keys from the kitchen counter, and soon, Armin was stepping out of the small car at his own house.

After he and Eren bid goodnight, Armin looked at the house with discomfort. His window was indeed still closed. Could he sleep here tonight after what happened earlier?

Suddenly, the front door opened, and his father stood there with a tired, but not displeased expression. He waved at Eren's fading headlights and motioned Armin inside.

Seeing his father in itself comforted him enough to get him through the front door. He walked in, and the aura of the house was somewhat better than earlier.

"Sorry I wasn't home earlier," Armin said hurriedly, "I just... didn't want to be home alone."

The taller man nodded, "Don't worry about it, I just didn't want to go to bed before you were home safe."

Armin walked into the kitchen wearily after giving his father a hug and listening to him close the door. He set his bag down by the stairs and sat in a chair at the counter, flopping over it.

"Long day?" His dad asked, and Armin recognized the weighted question immediately.

When he was first diagnosed with depression, he and his parents came up with a simple way of communicating his true emotional state by stating the length of the day. If he had struggled with misery and instability during the day, he simply told them it was a long day, and they'd do their best to help him. It was effective enough.

Eventually, he shrugged. "It was a weird day. A lot of things happened. Some of it sucked. Some of it was alright."

"I feel the same," the widower said quietly, and sat by his son at the counter. They sat uneasily there for a few minutes, and Armin glanced at his father to see him rubbing his temples with his eyes shut lightly. "I've been wondering if you want to see your psychologist again. She really helped you out earlier this year, and I figured if you ever needed a person to unload on, now wouldn't be a bad time."

It wasn't a bad idea. His psychologist was an eccentric woman who was incredibly intelligent, but also loving and perceptive and gave great advice. He'd thought of it himself, as well.

But... what would he tell her? He didn't want to talk to her about his dead mother; that was something he'd been trying not to think about too much, and he'd been doing okay that way. He wasn't the same person he'd been two weeks ago– he wasn't even _sure_ who he was now, but that was another subject entirely. He knew he didn't want to unload on anyone just yet.

"No..." he said slowly, "I don't think I can just talk with her about things just yet."

"Are you sure?" the man said, looking at Armin worriedly. "You've been quiet, and I've been gone a lot. I'm glad you've been spending time with Eren and Mikasa, they're good friends, but Hanji _is_ a professional..."

Armin shook his head. "I'd rather not yet. Soon, probably, but not yet. Is that okay?"

His dad weighed it for a moment before nodding. "Okay. I love you. And I'm tired. Are you ready to go to bed?"

Armin nodded conclusively. "I'm not even sure I'll make it up the stairs."

"Well, I can carry you if you want, but I think _neither_ of us would make it to our rooms then."

Armin chuckled, and then dragged himself off his chair. As he went about his nightly routine, leaving his backpack by the door of his room, he considered the events of the day.

First, the girl-presence had followed him to school. Then, Mr. Ackerman (Who turned out to be Mikasa's killer rescuer) had asked Armin some odd questions.

 _Figure out what makes people fight. More important, figure out what makes you fight_ , he'd said.

In light of what they'd learned about Mikasa's uncle, the question was frightening in depth and intrigue and content. What were the implications? Did Levi know that Mikasa was going to tell them what she told them that day?

Armin shook it off. He could think about it later.

He also actively chose not to think about the horrifying events in his bedroom earlier; he stood in the very same room in his underpants, and he did _not_ want to remember that there had been something unseen and likely insidious in the same space only that day.

He considered his conversation with Eren after Mikasa had left, and he looked at his backpack, now laden with a new board covered with numbers and letters that may be able to answer his questions should the Angel girl return.

Would she return? He wondered it half-consciously as he flicked his lights off, tossing the blue and grey sheets to the side. His door was closed, his window was locked now, his bed was warm. He could sense that something was off nearby, but actively ignored it, thinking of that beautiful blond girl he'd caught sight of for just a few seconds yesterday instead.

When sleep finally championed his body, he dreamed about her.

\-------

As Annie struggled with a long, leather boot, Hitch stirred in her bed. She glanced at the clock set upon the nearby bedside table. It told her it was a little past noon.

Due to the odd hours the Military Police tended to work, it was rare that officers slept at the normal nighttime hours. Hitch had come in a little past one in the morning, knowing it to have been nearly seven hours since Annie had retired to bed.

"Did you get up just now?" Hitch mumbled at her roommate.

Annie grunted affirmation.

Hitch grunted appreciation. "What's that, eighteen hours of sleep?"

"Twenty," Annie replied simply, beginning to tighten straps at the bottom of her boot first, working her way up her leg.

"You seem in a hurry now," Hitch observed snugly.

"I have a meeting."

"With who?"

Annie tightened the final strap and threw her Military Police jacket over her hoodie before standing and sighing.

"Her name's Sabrina."

"Why?"

Annie walked to the door briskly, and only responded once she'd reached the door, her hand resting in the handle.

"I think her son is going to try to kill himself. I need to know if I can stop him."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before you go through my laboriously long chapter notes, I'll just point out that these are not mandatory, you are completely free to skip them. But I like reading long author's notes, so I write long author's notes.  
> So I have a little bit of experience writing creepy scenes, but this one at the beginning of the chapter came out of nowhere, and I'm not sure everyone else will be as creeped out by it as I was. But I loved it so so much, it is just the right amount of creepy to add to this story. I hope everyone picked up on the fact that /whatever/ was responding to Armin was using the same yes/no answer method as he and Annie employed. I hope the bold type made it different enough from Annie's italics to recognize it wasn't our lovely petite blonde in Armin's house. But of course you all knew that.  
> I made up this version of Heaven off the tip of a hat, it is not from any religious text, I promise.  
> You probably noticed by now that Annie doesn't swear (she's calls kenny a dick, but we can write it off as her being negatively influenced by Envy). That's because Angels don't swear, DUHH!  
> Now the bit where Armin lies about why he was running: I've read a lot of fics where Armin is a terrible liar, and he stutters and sputters a lot, and I decided that that wouldn't be the case in Don't Let Me Down. In canon, Armin is a damn good liar and he holds pretty well in the face of verbal combat. I think that what Armin lacks in physical stature, he has always made up for twentyfold in mental and expressive aptitude, which includes making up lies on the spot and being able to stick with them. (Of course, that won't be doing me any favours as the author, but I think Armin's cred is more important lol). So you've probably already noticed that he isn't as weak as you may notice in other fics. It's actually important to the plot that he's like this, too, so that's a win/win.  
> My music genre changed suddenly this week. Last week it was melodious dubstep, often referred to as Trap. This week it suddenly changed to heavy metal tracks, including artists like Breaking Benjamin and Five Finger Death Punch. I'm wondering how this will affect Don't Let Me Down. Comment if you notice anything. (This note written on monday)  
> Man, I'm seeing how this music genre changed the story, everything went dark all of a sudden. I'll be sure to change it all to happy music when we get to the end of this story, promise. (This note written on Wednesday) (Also, just pointing out that most of this WAS in the outline, but still)  
> The dream might have more allegorical/parabolic structure than you expect from a noob writer like yours truly.
> 
> ~ AND WITH THAT, I'LL SEE YOU GUYS NEXT WEEK! Keep commenting! Keep doing kudos! And stuff! It gives me good vibes and then I write more.  
> Looks like saturdays are our posting days.  
> ALSO, next saturday is JULY 8, and you know what that means: AOT CHAPTER 95 comes out! Hopefully there aren't any major histories about Annie or Armin revealed, because then I'd feel all inclined to include it in DLMD, and that'd just be a mess. Stick with Reiner, Hajime. 
> 
> Love you bunches! c:


	5. The Dark Descent

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Armin faces a dark mental spiral as the combined efforts of his aggressors push him to the breaking point. Annie's release forms take their time. Levi is vague again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Warnings: (Warnings are just a list of spoilers, though, really.)  
> More Intense Adult Language, More Intense Violent Bullying, More Horror Themes (PLAYING WITH THINGS WE SHOULDN'T PLAY WITH), Graphic Self-Harm, References to Suicidal Intentions, and FINALLY, PRAISE THE LORD, FINALLY, A CONVERSATION

Annie wasn’t sure whether Armin was going to commit suicide or not. She had a habit of misunderstanding dreams, but hers last night had been pretty clear, to her at least. 

She was smart; she had seen his backpack full of mistreated things juxtaposed with his kind treatment of the same at his home. She'd seen the boys after school being rude to him. She'd seen the scars on his legs. She'd noticed dozens of small signs that inventoried his severely unhappy mindset. The dream had only been the catalyst to her realization that Armin was perhaps suicidal. 

Her only issue was context. How had Armin behaved before? How would she know if he was actually happier when she was around than when she wasn't? How could she know if she had succeeded in making him want to keep living if she only knew him for who he was now? 

The best way to learn about him would be to talk to his mother, and so she'd sent Sabrina a message via Panelink to meet up. When Sabrina had responded happily, Annie realized she was somewhat apprehensive. Would Sabrina be angry that she'd failed?

 _She doesn't seem like the kind of woman to get upset,_ Annie reasoned with herself, but the apprehension didn't go away.

The walk through Heaven in the early afternoon was nothing less than beautiful and pleasant. Evenly set cobblestones that paved the ground shimmered from the traces of gold within the rock that composed them. Abstract trees grew high into the air, and many buildings were even designed to allow the greenery to grow and intertwine itself through the multiple floors, creating a gorgeous mixture of human and natural architecture.

Above her head, trains fueled by the carbon in the air sped by, hanging from single-rail tracks that were mounted onto the buildings. They were sleek and aerodynamic and _fast_. They only made a little noise, and so she noticed one was passing solely because of the shade that suddenly flashed across the ground in front of her.

The street was set up with dozens of kiosks that were offering all sorts of amenities, opportunities, and leisure activities. From wonder-treats to street maps of Archonia to sign-up desks for Heaven's universities, there were kind volunteers chatting happily with the thousands of visitors to the city-center. They directed individuals to the local shops, concert halls, museums, historical-figure events, and more.

Annie walked by them with her usual flat expression. Her hair was pinned in the only bun she knew, and her hands were in the center pocket of her hoodie. She was off-duty, but people still glanced at her spear with mild dismay. They probably assumed she was investigating something, but the truth was that she couldn't be bothered to find normal, citizen clothes that she could wear around town, and she didn't want to have to return to the barracks to retrieve her spear should she get her orders.

The sun was high, illuminating the space above and around them. It was still odd to her not to have a sky, and twice as odd to see the stars above her during the day, but she'd long since gotten used to it. On rare days where she couldn't bring herself to take a shift on earth, she'd simply lay in the grass on the hill near the Drawbridge, looking up at the stars and enjoying the taste of the sweet, heavenly air.

She took a turn and looked around for the building that Sabrina had specified. She was still in Archonia's town center, but there were a few skyscrapers in the area that could be the possible locations of the woman's new home.

She quickly matched the description that Sabrina had given her to a behemoth tower that was made entirely of various white stone. She could pick out the glossy granite around the base, and the corner quartz columns that stretched into the sky for what seemed like miles. The front and sides were adorned with thousands of interlocking hexagonal panes, some of which were mirrors, others were windows, and still others looked like they were panes of pure obsidian.

Annie wasn't one to be stunned with the gorgeous building, so she walked placidly to the archway that was the entrance, finding a large, ornate cafe to be the ground floor. She followed a sign that directed her to the elevator, which would take her to the higher floors designated for housing.

A few minutes of searching reaped Annie the reward of finding her way to the floor and the apartment number that Sabrina had messaged to her. With a deep breath, Annie knocked politely on the blue-and-silver glossy wooden door.

\-------

Mornings in the Arlert house were quieter than they were three weeks ago. Without his mom to bring a bubbly atmosphere into the kitchen, Armin found that he and his father typically didn't talk until Armin was walking out of the house, for no other reason than they were comfortable with the silence, and had nothing to say.

Armin stood waiting for the toaster to release its hold on his breakfast, thoughtful.

 _Figure out what makes people fight. More important, figure out why_ you _fight._

 _Why_ do _people fight?_ He wondered. Clearly, wars were fought because one party had issues with another party, and it led to bloodshed. Was that what Mr. Ackerman had been asking about? If that was the reason, then it was ironic that he ask it, because _he_ was the history teacher here.

A sudden image of his teacher killing six men to protect his niece ricocheted through his mind, perhaps like the bullets he had fired to do so.

Did he kill them with guns? His hands? Knives? Did he fight like Jackie Chan, attacking with pieces of furniture?

For some reason, he didn't seem like the person to walk in and just shoot six people. Was he more of a hand-to-hand fighter? How did he fight _six people at once_ if he was only using his hands? Real life wasn't like the movies, there weren't many people who could walk into a crime scene and kill half a dozen men with nothing but their hands.

Armin's toast popped.

Startled, he pulled it out and swiftly placed it on a paper towel, reaching for the butter with one hand and a knife with the other.

"Dad?" He asked as he wiped butter across the toasted bread with a _screp screp screp_ sound.

"Hmm?" His dad replied. He was sitting at the nearby kitchen table with a newspaper flat in front of him. Armin noted that the paper was open to the comics page with a smile. A cup of coffee sat on a coaster on top of the housing advertisements on the adjacent page.

"Why do people fight?" He asked, reaching over the toaster to retrieve his other slice of breakfast, but paused as he glanced at his father, awaiting the answer.

He looked up from the paper with a questioning look on his face. "There's a heavy question."

Armin shrugged, placing the second piece of toast next to the first. "I know, my history teacher asked it to me after class yesterday. I don't know what he means."

"You mean Mikasa's uncle?"

He nodded. "I think he was trying to tell me something."

The older man sat back, his eyebrows scrunched, his face pensive. After a moment filled with more _screp screp screp_ -ing, he spoke.

"I think people fight to protect something. My job could be seen as fighting, for example. I go every day to protect the home we have. You go to school to protect your future."

Armin listened, noting his father's answer in his mind. _I should write that down,_ he decided.

"Is that a good answer?"

Armin smiled, "Yeah, I think that's a good one." _A tad on the optimistic side, but that's just dad._

The rest of the morning passed in silence, save for Armin's chewing, and the occasional sip of coffee from the kitchen table.

 

Armin's first class of the day was AP US Government.

"Right," Mr. Oruo said with a clap, "I've put together some flash cards about the powers of the Executive branch. I want each group to come and get a pack. You'll flip the deck over, and there will be a question on the bottom card. Whoever answers it correctly first gets a point. The person at each table with the most points will get an extra fifteen points added to their quiz on the executive branch on Friday. Understood?"

There were some grunts of affirmation, to which Mr Oruo said "Good! You'll have to cover up the question at the top of the deck with your hand while you're checking answers, by the way. Get going, then. I'll call for time in half an hour."

Armin looked at his table mates. Ymir was openly giving him a flat stare, her freckled face clearly not happy with him being at their table.

"What?!" He said, "Why are you looking at me like that?"

Ymir groaned, "We might as well just admit that Armin gets the fifteen points, guys."

Historia shook her head, "No! I actually studied this out last night, I think I might be able to beat him!" She stood up cheerily and went for a pack of cards.

Ymir watched her leave. "When the hell did she have time to study last night? We were making out til eleven."

Connie made a face. "Only eleven?"

Ymir laughed out loud as Historia returned. Armin rubbed his eyes, and watched Historia place the deck down. It wasn't very large stack of cards, but they looked good, almost like they were made in a factory. Each one was laminated and printed on card stock with colours and pictures of the White House. The last card had an answer written on it in big font, "Washington DC"

 _I haven't been studying as hard as I should be_ , Armin noted with malaise. _Historia will probably beat me, if I'm being honest with myself._

"Ready?" Connie asked, lifting the deck. Ymir, Historia, and Armin nodded, and he flipped the deck, revealing the first question. Armin read it in an instant, and answered it just as quickly.

"Veto power," he said, and Ymir flipped the card over to check the answer, covering the next question with her hand.

"He's right," She said with a grimace, and passed him the card. "Next."

She unveiled the next card quickly.

"Two-thirds!" Connie practically shouted at the same time Armin said "Fifty-one percent."

Connie gave him a sly look as he peeked at the answer on the other side of the card. He grinned, and passed the card to Armin. "Damn you!"

"National parks!" Historia won a card.

"Executive orders." Armin won another.

"Pardoning the Thanksgiving turkey!" Ymir called, and Armin gave her a bizarre look.

"The question was about international relations, Ymir," he said.

She shrugged and took the card anyway. "Close enough."

Fifteen minutes later, they'd finished the deck. Armin had twenty-eight cards, Ymir had ten, Connie had nine, and Historia had twenty-three.

"What do we do now?" Connie asked, looking at the other groups still working on their decks.

"Chill," Ymir said, throwing her feet onto Historia's lap and her hands behind her head.

"Actually," Armin interjected, feeling bold. It helped that he considered his group mates friendly, so he ventured with the question that had been on his mind all morning. "Mr. Ackerman asked me a question yesterday, and I've been giving it some ... mild thought."

"Psh, there goes Armin," Connie laughed, "He's going to question existence or something now."

"Or he'll undermine the fundamentals of society," Historia sighed with a smile, leaning onto the desk. She gave Armin a nod that he took as permission to continue.

He smiled, "Well, close. He asked me why people fight."

"Why people fight?" Ymir replied with a scoff. "People fight cause they want shit. I'd beat you up if I wanted your lunch money. Connie would beat you up for your lunch. Historia would beat you up for your test scores. People want shit, and then they fight for it."

"I think it's a human thing," Historia said thoughtfully. "We like to attack and feel strong. So we do things that establish our dominance. If you disagree with someone, that creates two parties. Then, it's not really an issue about whatever you were disagreeing about, it's the fact that there are two parties now, and you want to be the one in charge."

"So fighting is just an instinct?" Armin clarified.

"Maybe it's more complex than an instinct. I think it's just our nature," she shrugged.

Armin sighed and sat back, pondering. He glanced at Connie, whose eyes widened.

"I don't know why people fight, dude, don't ask me," he said with a laugh.

His dad had said that people fought to protect. That was a selfless reason. But Historia and Ymir said that people fought for power or dominance. Those were selfish reasons.

 _Why do I fight?_ He asked himself for perhaps the tenth time that day. _Am I selfish or selfless?_

The truth was, Armin wasn't much of a fighter. Was that selfless or selfish? Did he not fight because he didn't want to hurt others? That would be selfless. But what if he didn't fight because deep down, he knew that's what his bullies wanted him to? What if he didn't fight because that was the only way he _could_ fight? Did that make him selfish? Because he, in some hidden, compunctious corner of his soul, actually enjoyed the frustration that Kenny felt at his own submission?

God, he _was_ selfish.

He tried the question a few more times that day.

 

"Jean, can I ask you something?"

Jean looked over his buret tube at Armin with something similar to panic. "Did I do something wrong with this solution? Am I about to blow something up?"

"What?" Armin said, "No, that solution is ninety percent distilled water, that would only explode if you were about to pour pure potassium into it."

Jean looked relieved. "Damn it, Armin, this is why you should be the one holding these vials."

Armin shrugged. "I did the last two. Now can I ask you something?"

Jean nodded as he leaned away from the buret tube, still clearly concerned about explosions. They both wore aprons and protective goggles and gloves.

"Why do you think people fight?"

"Armin, what the hell? Who just asks that?"

He just shrugged. Maybe it was too much to ask of Jean.

But he went on. "Uhh, why do people fight? I always fight shit-for-brains because he pisses me off, but not really over anything else. Maybe people fight because they get pissed off? Hell if I know. Are you trying to do some sort of peacemaking move between me and Jaeger?"

Armin shook his head, "Not really, I've just been thinking about it. Do you think that people fight because they're selfish or selfless?"

Jean paused as he swirled the solution in the tube. "Huh. Depends on who's fighting, I guess."

"But the majority of people?"

His eyes narrowed as he squinted at the solution in his hand. "I'd say... selfish. They fight because their pride is hurt, or they want something, or they are just pissed and want to hurt stuff. Fighting satisfies something, I guess? Are you writing a report or something?"

Suddenly, he stopped, and groaned. " _Shit_ , this isn't for that English assignment, is it? Shit, I forgot to do it."

"No," Armin said quickly, "That's not due til tomorrow anyway. No, it's just a question."

Jean nodded thoughtfully, and then stood up straight, setting the solution on the lab counter. "Good. Well, we need to do the paperwork for this now. Do you have it?"

Armin nodded, pulling the paper out and placing it in front of them to work on.

 

His friends looked at him oddly when he asked at the lunch table.

"Is this about... yesterday?" Mikasa asked, her eyes looking down at the salad she'd brought from home.

Armin shook his head vehemently, "No, God, no. It's a question that came up in War History yesterday."

"I don't remember that coming up," she replied questioningly.

Without knowing why, he decided that he didn't want them to know that Mr. Ackerman had asked him the question personally. So he replied "Well, it was when Eren pinched your butt in class, so it's not that surprising you missed it."

Mikasa choked. Eren smacked his hand against the table with a guilty smile. "Alright, how the _fuck_ did you see that?! I literally waited until you were looking the other way!"

Armin raised his hands innocently. "I don't know what you're talking about. I'm just saying that if you don't answer my question, Jean might hear about your War History shenanigans."

Mikasa's eyes widened, horrified. "You wouldn't!"

Armin shrugged again, incapable of hiding the grin on his face.

"Fine," she replied, forking some lettuce into her mouth as gracefully as she could after Armin's not-so-subtle accusation.

If he was being truthful, he hadn't actually _seen_ Eren pinch her, but he _had_ seen the look on her face and her hand on her waist, and had put two-and-two together.

"People fight because they have something worth fighting over. People get dedicated to something, and they decide it's worth hurting and getting hurt over."

"Do you think it's usually selfishly or selflessly?" Armin's follow-up question was fast enough that Eren didn't have a chance to throw in his opinion- yet.

She tilted her head back and forth for a moment. "Neither. I think a person is either selfish or selfless depending on their situation. If someone's starving, they're going to fight to get food. If their best friend is getting bullied, they'll fight to protect that person."

Before Armin could continue questioning her, however, Eren's voice cut in, sharp and decisive.

"Revenge," he said, "People fight for revenge. The United States blew up half the Middle East for revenge. We bombed the fuck out of Japan for revenge. World War One came around because one fucking guy got killed, and people got pissed about it."

"But people can only fight for revenge if there's a wrongdoer in the first place," Armin pointed out. "Al Qaeda attacked because the US foreign policies in the middle east. Nagasaki and Hiroshima weren't actually that related to Pearl Harbor, so I'm not sure we can chalk that up to revenge. The Archduke of Austria-Hungary Franz Ferdinand was assassinated as a play to get Austria out of Serbia."

"But our policies in the middle east were in place for a reason. It's cause and effect. Nagasaki and Hiroshima were results of the fact that japan wouldn't back off in the war. And Austria and Hungary were in Serbia for a reason."

Armin moved to make a comment, but Eren was too fast.

 _"What I'm saying,"_ he said emphatically, "is that people fight because something else started it. There's always a cause and an effect. Fighting can be either the cause or the effect, but no matter what problems are going on, we can trace the causes and effects back for years. You can't find that many times in history where someone just started fighting for absolutely _no reason_."

There was quiet at their table for a moment as Armin mulled over Eren's response. He took a bite of the ham sandwich he'd prepared in the morning and looked around the lunchroom. It was a large bustle of activity. If Eren was right, then someone could be saying something right now that could theoretically start wars down the road, after hundreds of repeating causes and effects.

 _Eren can say some pretty insightful things,_ Armin thought, glancing at his friend. They continued lunch in silence until Eren finally asked if he could copy either of their war history homework.

\----------

Sabrina Arlert opened the door cheerfully. "Annie! I was wondering when you'd show up."

Annie stood with an impassive expression. "Yeah," she said. "I was on Earth a little longer than I expected."

"Well, come in, then, come in!" she said, "I have tea. And juice, if you like that better."

"No thanks," Annie said, stepping through the doorway. She followed the woman into a pleasant studio apartment that was big enough to play half-court basketball in. Everything was decorated with cool colors, highlighted by chilly dark blues and forest greens. The hexagonal panel windows doubled as shelves in places, and Sabrina had utilized them to hold plants and small figurines.

She sat on an indigo couch that was soft enough to make her want to recline and go back to sleep. She crossed her legs and sat up straight, looking out the windows at the picturesque Archonia laid out below her. Sabrina Arlert's home was in a good location– it was high enough that she could see most of the east half of the city from her main window.

"Well, alright then!" Sabrina said, walking into the living area with a cup of tea for herself. "How did it go?"

Annie pursed her lips, looking out the window. "I failed," she said candidly, "I didn't kill his demon." She didn't look at the woman, hoping to avoid the irritation displayed at her error.

"But you confirmed that there _was_ something haunting Armin?" Sabrina said immediately, and surprisingly, completely peacefully.

Annie looked at the woman, who returned the look with a smile. "Yeah, I actually saw it."

"So I was right?" Sabrina said, her smile getting bigger.

"Uh, yeah," she said, "But that's a bad thing. Demons are bad."

Sabrina leaned back with a contented sigh. "Well, if you put it that way, I sound terrible. But the way I see it, that demon is causing Armin's depression."

Annie's mild confusion was replaced with subtle realization. "I see. When the demon's gone, Armin can move on without depression."

"It's not just that," Sabrina replied, "Armin's a happy boy. He's _awesome_ . When he was just a kid, he was always happy and excited, but really well behaved. But I can't get over how _happy_ he always used to be, and how _miserable_ he is now. He used to go on and on about whatever he was learning about at the time. History, concepts of English grammar, the ocean, _oh_ ," she emphasized with an eye roll. "He used to talk about the ocean for hours and hours."

 _He's changed since then,_ Annie noted _. I wouldn't have chosen happy or excited to describe Armin in a million years. Brilliant, probably. Also cute._

She felt her cheeks redden. Did she just think that? He _was_ cute, but still, when had she decided that?

"But," Sabrina continued, not noticing Annie's face, "Armin's not like that anymore. He's still caring and kind, but he's... insecure, I guess? He beats himself up over little things, and he's always questioning himself. He's got almost no confidence. It's a good thing he's always around Mikasa and Eren- did you see them?"

Annie nodded. Mikasa, the raven-haired Asian girl, and Eren, the boy with the messy brown hair.

"Well, they're his best friends. He has other friends too, but he doesn't know it. He has this weird distinction between friendly people and friends. He thinks most of his friends are just people who are friendly. I think he has a hard time understanding that people can look at him and just love him for who he is."

"I think he's getting bullied," Annie stated.

Sabrina's eyes closed firmly, and Annie caught sight of something in Sabrina that she hadn't seen there before. As she took a deep breath, there was pure, unadulterated rage there. Like a mother bear going berserk inside her, desperate to fend off the fiends attacking her baby. "Yeah, I think so too. But no matter how much I pestered him, no matter how many times I called the school wondering why my son had bruises all over him, no matter how many times I found _bloody razors_ in his bathroom garbage can, I never found out who it was. Whoever that _kid_ is that's been hurting my son, he's lucky I died before I got to him."

Annie nodded. She'd had time to think this morning as she prepared for duty, and she'd considered the events of the day before, specifically the time just before she'd returned to heaven.

"I followed Armin to school. He was okay for most of the day, but close to the end of it, he started getting nervous. He tried to stay with his history teacher after class, but the man had to leave."

Sabrina nodded, "He's done that before. Mr. Ackerman is Mikasa's uncle. She's lived with him ever since her parents were murdered."

Annie's eyebrows raised. Murdered?

"I don't know much about the details, but Levi adopted her after she watched it all happen. I was so shocked when I found out, but... she's tough."

Annie nodded quietly, and they sat in silence for a moment.

"There were some kids waiting for him in front of the school, and they weren't being very nice. I didn't have time to figure out what was going on, because I noticed a demon that I needed to kill."

"Did you hear any names?" Sabrina asked.

Annie paused, tilting her head as if in thought. She did know the bully's name, it was Kenny. But would it help or hurt Armin's situation for the woman to know who her son's bully was? Sabrina couldn't do anything from Heaven, but did she want to? Would she try to?

She shook her head, "No, sorry. The demon was a thirty-foot snake, probably causing problems for everyone at the school. I don't know if you know demon classification, but this was a fifth-tier predator class demon."

Sabrina shrugged, "That's fine. I was thinking I'd be able to call someone's mom or something, but I couldn't do anything from heaven anyway. I guess I'm just new here. I'm still figuring out that hard part of being immortal, and that's that I can't change things that are happening on earth. I just have to watch."

They sat in deflated silence for a minute, Annie feeling wary of her lie, and Sabrina feeling remorse for not taking care of her son's bullies before she died.

"I'd like to know more about Armin," Annie said, remembering her dream. Armin was capable of cutting himself up, could it get bad enough that he would decide to end it all?

Sabrina perked up. "Okay! I have like, a thousand stories. Do you have a lot of time?"

"I don't know, I'm waiting on a release notice before I can go back and kill that demon for Armin," Annie replied.

"What?!" Sabrina looked overjoyed, "You're going back?!"

 _Oh yeah, I hadn't mentioned that_ , she thought, but only nodded.

"Oh my god!" Sabrina leapt forward and hugged the smaller blonde in a huge embrace. "Thank you! I could kiss you!"

Annie's eyes betrayed more surprised than she intended, wide and startled. "It's just my job," she said, unsure of what to do with her hands during the hug. "And I like Armin, too."

Again, she found herself blushing. "Not, like like, but- you know, just, I think he's, uh, good and interesting and stuff."

She blushed harder, feeling her face turn into a tomato, and felt Sabrina preparing to release her.

 _God, don’t let her notice my face. Maybe I can say this is because of this hug_ , she thought as the woman pulled away, but still flipped more hair in front of her face with a flick of her neck. _And not because I said I liked Armin._

"Wow, okay, so you want to learn about Armin. Where do I start?" Sabrina said with a beaming smile.

Annie shrugged, frantically trying to control her face. "The beginning?"

Sabrina nodded. "Yeah... I'll just tell you everything."

\--------

"And that's the Battle of Shiloh," Mr. Ackerman said, standing up from the barstool that was placed next to the projector at the front of the room. Armin sat at his place near the back on the right. "Make sure to note that this is the battle where Sherman and Grant actually met each other. Remember that when we get to Sherman's March to the Sea."

Armin looked at the clock. _Oh, no! School's over! But class just started!_ He looked back and forth at his friends packing their bags and Mr. Ackerman, who was walking around with a pile of papers.

"I'm giving you a bit of extra reading, it's about Sherman and Grant," the teacher said, "Because these guys are the badasses who won the whole fucking war. Once you have a copy, you're free to get the hell out."

Armin looked up at the man as he handed him the two-sided piece of paper. He paused and said quietly, "Stay behind after class for a minute, Arlert."

Armin, flummoxed, looked around the room at the man as he passed him.

"Have fun hiding in teacher's class, Arlert," a voice said, and Armin, tried as he did, couldn't help but identify the speaker.

It was Bryce Reynolds. Another one of Kenny's squad. A medium-height redhead with a sneer to sour milk. Armin noticed that he was wearing the same plaid shirt he'd worn yesterday when Kenny let him off easy. He was, if he remembered correctly, one of the main people encouraging Kenny to be terrible to Armin.

Armin shook his head, clearing it. He didn't like thinking about his bullies; doing so sometimes made him frustrated or even depressed all on its own, so he avoided it, and erased the comment from his mind.

Suddenly the bell rang throughout the school, signalling the end of the day. Armin put a few of his pens into his backpack, which sat at his feet.

"Hey, Armin, we're headed off to practice," Mikasa said, "We'll catch up with you later, okay?"

He nodded, he wasn't looking forward to spending a part of his afternoon home alone before he got the message from his friends to meet them somewhere.

"Promise to answer my call?" Eren asked seriously.

Armin rolled his eyes and nodded. "I'll answer, promise."

Satisfied, his friends hurried out of the room to change into their practice attire, leaving him alone with his teacher.

Mr. Ackerman, from his desk, was the first to speak, breaking his trait of being often stony and silent. "I think my classroom empties faster than any other room in the school."

Armin chuckled, "Why do you think that?"

"Cause I'm fuckin scary as hell, I guess," the teacher responded, glancing at the doorway, perhaps checking to see if Director Ral was there to reprimand him for something again. The doorway was open, but empty.

"That's not true," Armin replied, and the man raised an eyebrow. It took him a moment to construct an argument, but eventually continued. "I mean, you're coarse, and sometimes prone to fits of violence, but I don't think that's why people leave so quickly."

"Oh yeah?" the dark-haired man threw his legs up onto his desk, folding his hands. His fingers interlaced, and it reminded Armin of a scheming villain from a film. "Then why do all these kids high-tail it out of my classroom? Hell, my own _niece_ runs out of here."

"That's because she plays sports," Armin replied obviously. "I think they leave fast because you're so... _intense_. Lots of homework, a class full of guts and gore, your swearing ... it's like running a mental marathon in here every single day."

He nodded slowly in response, his eyes narrowed and directed at the doorway to the room still. "Hell yeah, it is. Like running a fucking Iron Man."

Armin nodded, and added the reading assignment to the contents of his bag.

"So do you have a good answer yet?" The history teacher asked nonchalantly, and Armin paused.

"I have a few answers..." he replied.

 _People fight to protect. They fight to get what they want. They fight because it's their nature. They fight to satisfy their rage. They fight to achieve something. They fight for revenge._ His friends’ answers swirled around in his head, but at that moment, it would have felt false to use them as his own response.

"But they're not good enough," he finished, slightly deflated. "I've been thinking about it, though."

"It's a tough question," the man replied with a nod. "Did you figure out what makes _you_ fight?"

Armin paused, and shook his head. "I haven't given that one as much thought, to be honest."

Mr. Ackerman's feet fell to the floor, and he leaned towards his blond student. "I'd figure that answer out first, and quickly, Arlert. The clock's ticking."

Before Armin could even _begin_ to imagine what his teacher was alluding to, the speaker above the door crackled to life.

"Mr. Ackerman," Vice Principal Nifa's voice announced to the whole building, "You've been requested in the front office. Please report to the front office."

"What the fuck?" He replied bitterly, even though Nifa couldn't hear him, "Why?"

Armin shrugged and bit his lip. "Mind if I stay here?"

The man shook his head as he stood, "Not at all. I'll be back in a minute, I guess."

In a moment, he was gone, leaving Armin alone in the classroom. Armin looked up and around at the decorations, seeing paintings of US Presidents, depictions of key battles, various American flags, and a few war relics such as a mounted plate of sheet metal from a Spitfire jet that fought in World War II.

The door was open. For some reason, Armin couldn't stop glancing at it. Why hadn't Mr. Ackerman locked him in?

Should he lock it?

He didn't feel as safe here as he should have. In fact, he could feel his apprehension increase with every breath. Why had the teacher had to visit the office? He was being requested?

 _Oh no,_ Armin realised _, did they request him? Was it Kenny?_

If it was one of Kenny's posse to request the teacher in the front office, they could be working together to get Armin out of the classroom.

 _"I bet you stayed with Mr. Ackerman after class too, didn't ya?"_ Kenny had said. Had he known that Armin would stay here again?

The door was still open. There were little to no students in the hallway now. Only a few stragglers walked past. Would Mr. Ackerman question him if he came back to a locked classroom? Were there any rules about students being locked alone in classrooms?

Armin stood, deciding that it was worth stopping anyone dragging him out of the class while Mr. Ackerman was gone. Once the man was back, Armin would just unlock it for him if he didn't have his keys.

He walked up the rows of desks, watching the door, wary of anyone who could leap out and grab him.

The door was a push door from the inside, which meant that Armin would have to step out into the hall to pull it back in. When he did, he looked up the longer half of the hallway, worried he'd see anyone who might intend to do him harm.

There was no one, and so Armin paused. Was he being paranoid? Kenny had let him off easy last time, maybe he was just done for good?

No, he'd only told him to take the day off. That meant that Kenny was coming back, right? Armin could expect to get bullied again?

And what had Bryce meant? _"Have fun hiding out in teacher's class, Arlert."_

All signs were pointing to Armin being dragged away now. Should he leave, then? Try to outsmart them? Or was that what they were expecting? Did they have all the exits covered?

Could he go and hide in the men's bathroom? Maybe the women's? They wouldn't expect the women's bathroom. He could just stand on a stall and wait it out.

Why did Kenny have to be so smart? He outsmarted Armin _every time_. No matter what he decided to do, Armin was caught.

He stayed at the door to the classroom for a moment. _They can't get to me if the door's locked, though_ , he decided, and pulled the door closed behind him, twisting the lock.

He turned to look at the empty room, half-expecting his bullies to have found a way in behind him. But it was still empty. The desks were slightly askew in places where students had left in a hurry.

Armin returned to his desk, sitting down and pulling the reading out. It was a photocopy of several letters that Sherman and Grant had sent back and forth to each other during the wartime. One was written by Sherman's hand, describing the first time that he'd met Grant after the battle of Shiloh.

Armin scanned the page, allowing himself to zone out and focus on the writing. Now that the door was closed, he actually couldn't see what was going on in the hall, and that was just fine. He felt his unease leak away, hoping that he'd finally succeeded in avoiding his bullies.

Finally, the sounds of Mr. Ackerman returning sounded outside the door, and Armin smiled to himself as he kept his eyes focused on the reading, listening to the jingling keys that unlocked the classroom. He made the right choice! He'd avoided them!

"What did they want you in the office for?" He asked comfortably, still reading the letters between the generals as the door opened, imagining whatever curses that the man would use to describe whoever had called him to the school's offices.

Suddenly, Armin realised something was wrong.

"They wanted to get the teacher away from the classroom for a little while," Kenny Ackerman said, stepping in with a sneer.

\---------

Annie scanned into the Military Police base resignedly. The courtyard before her was mostly quiet, save for a few individuals who were making their way across the campus-like base.

"Welcome back, Miss Leonhardt," the gate official said, handing her her identification card. She walked away without a reply, lost in thought.

Armin Arlert. How odd it was that the boy who she hadn't even known existed a week ago was now in the central parameter of her focus? He was so _intriguing_ , she couldn't help but let her thoughts drift to the stories that Sabrina had told her about him. Many of them had been about his childhood, others had happened only a few weeks ago.

She'd heard of how Sabrina had walked into her kitchen to find that Armin, then only six or seven, had crashed his bike and given himself severe road rash. She'd found him sniffling, but expertly applying the correct salves to clean the wound before binding it and cleaning up the medical supplies.

She'd heard of how Armin only a year or so earlier than that had found an injured baby robin, and had brought it in. He'd researched means of nursing it and applied them for weeks until the bird was finally able to take off and leave them behind.

She'd heard of how Armin had met Eren in second grade, when Armin had been lonely and shy until Eren arrived and labelled Armin as his best friend. Then they'd conquered the world together.

She'd heard of how Armin had steadily become darker and more solitary over recent years, periodically going for days in his room without seeing his friends or family, only to return as though nothing had happened at all.

She'd heard of how Armin could fake being happy better than anyone, to the point that almost no one could tell if he was feeling down.

She'd heard of how once his family was asleep and all his homework was done, Armin would break down in tears, his sobs only barely audible to his sleeping parents on the other side of the house.

At that point, Sabrina had begun to cry, her true frustration at not being able to help her son becoming apparent. Annie, not the best at empathy, had done her best to move to sit beside the woman and to hold her as she wept.

Annie shivered despite the homely warmth of Heaven's atmosphere. She _needed_ to help Armin. She needed to help Armin. Where were her orders? Why hadn't she been sent back to Shiganshina? Armin needed her, what was taking so long?

After three hours of sitting with Sabrina, not so much as a pagelink notification had been sent her way. What was Sanderson waiting for? Was this just a display of authority? Was he simply showing her that her position as the only solo MP was teetering precariously?

She walked across the courtyard, ignoring the individuals who pointed her out. She was used to being a spectacle to those MP's who knew she operated alone. It was a point of pride that she was as effective by herself as a whole squad of MP's, which typically consisted of six officers.

Suddenly, a chilling thought crept into her mind.

_What if I can't beat Despair? What if it's a higher tier than I'm expecting?_

_What if I die?_

It was the curse of working with the Guardian Angels. It wasn't common for angels to get killed, but it did happen sometimes. There wasn't another job in Heaven that put its workers so close to death.

The circumstances for Annie, and every other person in Heaven, to die were unique. Because she's immortal, she can't just get stabbed in the heart and then die, per se.

Certainly, if she were stabbed in the heart or had her head cut off, she would die, but not the way that mortals die. When _angels_ die, it's possible for the soul to return to its body through healing methods provided in Archonia.

But that was only if the body found its way back to Archonia.

If Annie was defeated by Armin's Despair, then her body would without a doubt get ruined, pounded to a pulp, ripped to shreds, _something_. Being solo meant that she had no one to retrieve her body before it was so damaged she couldn't return to it.

Essentially, being solo meant that she was closer to having her soul expelled from its body forever than anyone else.

She pushed the door to the barracks open, trudging up the stairs to where her and Hitch's room was situated. As she approached her door, which was labeled **850** in flowery gold writing, she could hear her roommate's voice talking to someone from within.

"-for him to just make decisions like this!" Hitch was saying as Annie opened the door. Marlowe stood next to the normally-bubbly girl's desk, listening to her rant about something. "He thinks he can just come in here and make decisions to fix things that weren't even broken!"

"Hi, Annie," Marlowe acknowledged her with a nod, his short black hair sticking up in places. "Hitch-bear, I would love to keep talking about this, but I was on earth for a full fourteen hours, I'm exhausted."

"Annie, listen to this!" Hitch said, ignoring her boyfriend's note of tiredness, whirling around to look at her with fury. She held up an official looking paper and read aloud.

"Team Leader Hitch Dreisse, the situation of one Annie Leonhardt, who has been found to be listed under your team, has been brought to light under Division Leader Christoff Sanderson's new assignment over the Gryphon division of the Military Police in Archonia. You are being assigned to choose five other individuals, who have had no quarrel with Leonhardt, over whom she will be assigned as a team leader. Please supply the list of names promptly, no later than Wednesday evening. Thank you for your diligence, signed Joseph Dok."

Annie blinked, surprise washing over her. They were already planning to reorganise her? On Thursday? Signed by Nile Dok's son? What?

"Right?!" Hitch stated angrily, reading Annie's face, "Ridiculous! You fail one mission and you get punished for it? What an as-"

"Hey," Marlowe cut her off with a hand, "He's just trying to do what he thinks is right. He doesn't know Annie, and she is in a peculiar situation. It _would_ make sense to assign her a team. And he's being gracious, making her a team leader and everything."

Annie grit her teeth, shaking her head and looking to the wall. "I'm supposed to be in Shiganshina. Did any physical orders show up here while I was gone?"

They looked at each other and shook their heads. "No," Hitch said, "They would have paged you, wouldn't they?"

She shrugged, moving to the empty couch under the window. She leaned her spear against the wall and sat, leaning forward and putting her face in her hands. She took a deep, semi-calming breath.

_Can't help Armin. Getting reorganized. Can't help Sabrina. Have to deal with idiot MP's._

_Maybe I should quit._

She shook the idea away. There were freelancers, but there was heaps and heaps of paperwork barring the way, not to mention the fact that freelancers were only allowed on Earth for up to ten hours. With her stamina on the planet, that just wasn't feasible. She had to stay with the Military Police.

She groaned, listening to Marlowe try to calm Hitch down.

"Honey, it's going to be okay. Annie's tough. She'll figure this out. She can hunt down whatever she needs to in Shiganshina today, and it'll all be alright, okay?"

Hitch huffed, and slapped the paper down on her desk.

They were quiet for a second, and when she heard a grunt, Annie realized that Marlowe was probably shutting Hitch up by kissing her. She blushed behind her hands, and waited for the smooch sound to signal their completion.

It came, later than necessary, and Annie finally looked up as Marlowe was saying goodbye. "I'll see you guys later, okay? Good luck, Annie!"

Annie nodded with a fixed expression. Once Marlowe was gone, Hitch started threw the paper into the air. "This is ridiculous! Nile Dok himself set up your solo position! Sanderson can't do this!"

Annie looked at her with interest to mask her panic. "Why do you care?"

"Because you're my friend!" Hitch said, making Annie's heart skip a beat slightly. "I know how happy it makes you to work by yourself. I remember how miserable you were working with those morons from Cyclops division."

Annie didn't know what to say. "We're... friends?"

Her roommate was incredulous, "How long have we been roommates?! Like, seven years! Of _course_ we're friends, what did you think we were?"

Annie, nonplussed, fought for words. "Roommates, I don't know?"

The taller girl shook her head, "You're clueless, I've been saying we're besties for years now, and you didn't even count us as friends in the first place. I'm hurt, you know."

Annie shrugged again, embarrassed. Her face had slowly heated up through the exchange, and now she was glad that half her face was hidden behind her bangs.

Her pocket vibrated. She slapped her thigh and dragged the panelink from it, scanning the message quickly.

"Is it-"

"Yeah," Annie answered before the question was finished, her cheeks heating in rage as she read. "They're giving me a warning for being late. They say I received orders ten hours ago."

"Ten hours, what the _fff..."_ her cuss died before it could leave her mouth, but she sputtered for a moment to cover it up. "Those ... idiots! They did this on purpose! They're trying to make you fail! Even if you succeed now, it'll look bad on paper!"

Annie ground her teeth as she stood up. "I'm leaving. I'll see you later. I'll probably be gone upwards of thirty hours this time, so don't worry about me."

Hitch nodded and paused before saying determinedly, "Go kick some ass."

Annie narrowed her eyes at her friend's curse word before she smiled.

"Count on it."

\------

Kenny wasn't feeling gentle. Nor forgiving. Nor any behavior that could be attributed to anyone who had ever been kind in their lives.

Before Armin could react properly, Kenny was across the room, lifting him out of his desk by the back of his neck with one hand. Armin fought back weakly, knocking a desk over as he was dragged brutally out of the classroom and into the hallway.

_Shit shit shit shit_

There were other people in the hallway, and for a moment Armin thought he'd been miraculously rescued, but he quickly realized that they were Kenny's cohorts.

_SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT_

This didn't feel like the normal bullying. This didn't even feel like it was going to be the mental kind of torture, like having to get undressed in front of a bunch of enemies.

This was going to be one of the times where he limped home and didn't leave his room until the bruises on his face were gone.

No, this was going to be worse. Not a single one of the ... seven bullies had any sort of pleasures look on their face. They were _pissed_. Why!? What had Armin done?

"Kenny!" Armin yelped despite himself, "What's going on?! Let me go!"

The moment the noise left left his mouth, Kenny literally heaved and _threw_ Armin against a wall of lockers. Armin's head crashed painfully into the steel between two of them, and he collapsed in a heap.

Kenny's hand was back around Armin's ankle, dragging him as the bullies behind him stole kicks into his gut, crotch, chest, face, everywhere. He felt seven impacts, the wind well out of him by the fourth.

Choking and coughing, he felt them leave the school and he was suddenly being dragged across cold concrete pavement, then broken asphalt, littered with salt to keep the inevitable ice away. _Back door, by the biology rooms_ , he noted absently, desperately trying to mentally step back, away from the pain felt all over his body.

The ground was cutting against his abdominals, and he felt another swift kick in the gut as he tried to struggle out of Kenny's iron-grip.

"What's going on?" Armin strained again, weakly, "Why?"

Kenny remained silent, which was the scariest way for him to respond. Kenny was a loud mouth. He liked to narrate, comment, joke, tease, everything. When he was silent, something was _wrong_.

Armin recognized Bryce, who had a grin on his face as Armin's hand, which was holding his shirt down, got pinned between his stomach and the ground. He fought to keep his hold, not wanting to show off his stomach to them, but when the skin on his knuckles began peeling away, he was forced to release.

Bryce's foot stomped hard into Armin's other hand as it attempted to hold the shirt down. It was crushed painfully against a few pebbles, and Armin let out another yelp. His shirt rolled up, and his bare skin was dragged against the sharp pebbles of salt.

Finally, he was released. They were a good distance from the school, behind a trailer that was used as a band class during the day. Now, the lights were off and it was silent.

He scrambled to his feet, shoving his shirt down and backing against the building-on-stilts, looking at his aggressors. He recognized Shawn from Monday, and Bryce from earlier today. The other four looked... hell, they weren't seniors, they'd graduated last year, and Armin didn't know their names.

He didn't comment as Kenny stood tall and menacing. They circled around him angrily. What had he done to deserve this? There was no joking going on, which was about the only constant to every bullying session. What the hell was going on?

"Arlert, what's our deal?" Kenny asked angrily.

Armin's eyes widened, what deal?! They had no deal! "Kenny, I don't-"

The uppercut punch that crashed into his jaw was enough to knock Armin off his feet, and he felt the tendons and muscles stretch awkwardly and painfully. The bones in his face strained, but held. He crashed to the ground with a gasp of pain.

"Our _deal_ ," Kenny grit out, "Is that you don't _fucking tell anyone what happens out here. Ever."_

"I didn't!" Armin gasped, and the words felt odd leaving his mouth due to the strain his jaw had just felt, "I swear, I didn't tell anyone!"

"Bullshit, you squealing bitch!" Kenny growled, kicking into Armin's chest, directly into the diaphragm.

The air was knocked so profoundly out of his lungs that he feared it might never return. Tears squeezed out of his eyes as he fought for breath. _I haven't told anyone! I don't deserve this!_

"I got my ass handed to me by the administration, and you want me to believe that you didn't tell anyone anything?" He growled, leaning down and grabbing Armin by the hair. "I'm about to pound you so hard that you'll need help wiping your own ass."

"Didn't- no one- knows," Armin choked, wincing at the hair that was getting ripped out of his head, hoping to avoid any more impact by using the only means that could possibly work in this situation: diplomacy. "Someone- else."

"Who the fuck else is going to tell?! Why the fuck did the Ral bitch chew my ass off about bullying?!" Kenny spit.

 _Well for one, you literally take photo evidence every time you kick the shit out of me, and you never check for cameras, and who knows who could be walking around when you're getting up to no good! But sure, blame me!_ He thought dejectedly.

Kenny didn't give him the chance to regain his breath to respond to the question. He grabbed him by the wrist and hauled him to his feet, shoving him back against the trailer-classroom.

 _Maybe there'll be a teacher in there to come out and rescue me_ , Armin wondered.

Kenny's fist smashed into Armin's nose, and he felt it strain. Blood immediately began trickling down his face, and he tasted it in his mouth, salty and like metal.

The other six guys simply stood and watched as Armin was brutally punched, kicked, slapped, and burned again.

As the punishment continued, Armin fell limp, simply allowing the pain to continue. In a sick way, he compared and contrasted the pain from different areas in his body. The collisions to his abdomen were painful because they were also shocking, knocking his insides around, like punching a bag of raspberries.

The blows to his jaw and face were painful because he knew that he couldn't let anyone see him like this, and so it was painful to know that he wouldn't be at school for a few days. They were doubly painful, because his head snapped back and cracked against the trailer. His neck strained with each of these.

The kicks to his knees and crotch were maybe the worst, because Kenny wore thick boots, and his groin was probably going to be something similar to a bruised peach by the end of this. That pain was searing and sickening, making him want to puke and scream at the same time.

 _Kenny's kind of an asshole_ , Armin decided.

Finally, it ended as Kenny spit on his face. He heard the older boy snap a picture of Armin’s downed form. "If you tell anyone about this shit again, I swear to God I'll start breaking bones, Arlert."

Armin simply laid on the ground, wondering placidly if there was an unbruised square inch on him at all. _Maybe,_ he thought _, he avoided my butt, mostly. I'll probably still be able to wipe it myself._

As he lay, he rolled over to face the underside of the trailer. The way it was built made it so that it was up on stilts slightly, raising the building about two feet above the ground, so he could see the garbage that had built up over time.

The way he saw it, he could lay here in absolute misery, crying and wondering _why why why,_ and then eventually decide that he didn't want to live anymore. Or, he could just decide off the bat that he _definitely_ didn't want to live through _this_ shit anymore, and lay here apathetically. Usually, he picked the former, but today, the latter was looking pretty attractive.

 _I should call Eren. My mind is in a pretty bad place,_ he realised, but did nothing, looking for a distraction.

 _I spy with my little eye... a game board_. He thought to himself, staring at the various junk under the band classroom. _Chutes and ladders?_

He craned his neck, which he found was painful due to the five or six punches he'd received to his chin and face.

It was some sort of board... Chess, maybe? It was made of nice, polished wood. It was leaned against a garbage bag full of what looked like leaves. It was maybe fifteen feet under the building, where it was just dark enough to make the side of the board with some sort of writing on it indiscernible.

He knew he should be stepping up to fight against the mental and emotional _agony_ he knew was broiling within him, but he decided to scoot his way under the trailer and retrieve the strange board anyway, justifying that if he just distracted himself long enough, he would eventually decide to live instead of die.

He gathered up a little strength and crawled, noticing the cuts and bruises on his forearms, and the significant cuts on his left hand- the one Bryce had stomped on.

 _What was_ his _deal?_ Armin wondered, _Did I do something to piss him off too? He can't have justified helping Kenny beat me up over the fact that Kenny had gotten trouble somehow, can he?_

_And what was that? What idiot told on Kenny the Ripper? They got me beat up, that jerk._

Finally, he was all the way under the trailer. He noted carelessly that his nose was still bleeding, dripping copiously onto the pavement. He didn't care.

It looked like some homeless person had made the underside of the classroom their hangout spot a long time ago, as some of the bags were squashed and there was some sort of old carpet laid out on the ground.

He reached around the garbage bag and got his fingers around the board, which he still couldn't see properly. He wiped it off and flipped it over to look at it.

He almost dropped it in surprise.

He almost left it behind in fear, too.

But there was some little voice in the back of his mind crying out that no one would miss the numinous board, and he had every reason to borrow it. All the numbers and letters would be more useful to him than anyone else. The little triangle in the slot at the side of the board would answer more of his questions than anyone else's.

 _Plus,_ he reasoned, _maybe mom will be the one to reprimand me._

\-------

Annie rushed out of the barracks, flying down all four sets of stairs that took her to the ground floor. She practically kicked the exit doors down with her leather-booted foot and tore down the path that led towards the security checkpoint that would allow her out of the Military Police base.

As she flew around a corner, she crashed into a familiar blond officer. They both lost their balance and fell over, Reiner to one side of the path and Annie to the other.

"Whoa!" He said with a laugh, "Glad you weren't carrying your spear, you would have impaled me. That would have been inconvenient."

Annie didn't have time for- wait. _Reiner got into Stohess zone without permission._ But could Armin wait ten minutes? Curse her situation! Where was Reiner three hours ago when she had time to blow?

"Yeah," she said, brushing her hair behind her ear with a grunt. "Sorry, I'm in a hurry."

Reiner laughed as he stood up, "Now hold on, I have to ask you something. Are you going to date Bertholdt?"

Her eyes widened, and she felt stony irritation well up inside her. Of course Bertholdt told Reiner. "No," she said, "I'm going to eat sushi in the same restaurant as him for half an hour this weekend."

Reiner shrugged, and offered her his hand. She took it, rising to her feet and adjusting her spear. "Sounds like a date to me," he said with a wink.

"It isn't," she said. "But I have to ask you something."

He rolled his eyes, "Yeah yeah, I accidentally activated a destroyer, It was an accident, I swear-"

"No," she cut him off, "I need to know how you got on earth without permission. Without release details."

Reiner narrowed his eyes with a grin. "What're you planning, Annie? You don't seem like the kind of girl to sneak into teenage boys' locker rooms, what do yo want to do down there?"

She only waffled over the truth for a moment; Reiner was trustworthy. "I might get forced to work in a team, and I'll need a way to unwind when they piss me off."

He nodded, and then shrugged. "Ask Pixis. He used to be the commander of the Garrison, so he knows a few tricks."

"You're not going to just tell me?" She asked impatiently. She realized that she was looking forward to her visit to Shiganshina, and it wasn't because of the prospect of taking down a tough demon.

He scratched the back of his head. "Ehh.... it's not easy to explain. If you ever need out though, go ask Pixis."

She nodded quickly. "Okay, fine. See you later."

"Hey, Annie?" Reiner called as she began trotting away.

She turned, still moving.

"Let Bert down easy, alright?" He said with a wink.

She ignored him, turning back and sprinting towards the checkpoint.

\------

Armin managed to get out of the school and all the way to his house without anyone noticing him. When he snuck into Mr. Ackerman's room, it was till empty, left exactly as it was when he'd been dragged out.

He'd fixed the knocked-over desk, grabbed his backpack, and hurried out with his head low, hidden by his thin hoodie.

As he'd approached his home, his apprehension about yesterday's scare had almost kept him out. Almost. In the end, his apprehension of someone seeing him the way he was- battered, bruised, bleeding- overcame his fear of his own house, and he'd entered.

The front door creaked closed behind him, and he flicked on the light as he walked into the kitchen. The house wasn't warm like it had been on Monday, nor was it cold and eerie like yesterday. It was just normal, perhaps leaning slightly to the cold-and-eerie side.

He felt something grabbing at his heart, as if he had an itch on the inside of his rib cage. His eyes were harrowed and puffy.

 _I think I'm crying,_ he thought, _huh. Fuck_.

He looked at the fridge, realizing he was hungry. He barely even recognized the physical need before turning and walking up the stairs to his room instead.

_Fuck me, I don't want to eat._

He closed the door to his bedroom behind him, letting out a sigh. It wasn't a sigh of relief. It wasn't even a sigh of apprehension.

It was a sigh of dark anticipation.

He rubbed his eyes, throwing his backpack on the bed. The Ouija board's rounded corners were too wide to get zipped into his bag, but the identity of the board wasn't visible from just the corners. He pulled it out gently, setting it on the ground behind his bed, so it wouldn't be visible should anyone walk in the room.

He sat criss-cross, sliding the hand-sized triangle out of the slot at the side of the board. It had a circular hole in the center, and it was eerily designed to look like the pupil of an eyeball. He flipped it over, where there was no design, and set it on the board.

The board itself was simply wood, maybe oak. The words _Yes_ and _No_ were etched- no, burned into the wood at the top. It listed numbers one through nine just beneath that, and finally, the letters of the alphabet were below that.

 _What do I ask? Is there a way I'm supposed to do this?_ He wondered, and shrugged to himself.

"Hello?" He asked simply, "Anything there?"

The triangle sat still, positioned halfway between H and I.

"I'm looking for the Angel I met the other day," he said, wondering if the girl could hear him from wherever she was. She certainly wasn't here, the house would have felt warmer.

Nothing moved. The board sat innocently, unmoving.

 _Maybe the triangle has to be face up_ , he considered, and flipped it over, revealing the etching of the creepy eye.

"How about now?" He asked quietly, "Anything there?"

The board was as still as the house around him.

He shrugged and stood up. As he did so, his knees creaked and his spine ached.

He half-considered his homework, but couldn't bring himself to work on it. Instead, he walked out the door and into the bathroom up the hall. He undressed, addressing the various injuries given him by Kenny in the mirror.

His left eye was blackening. His nose had a crusted layer of blood around both nostrils. His lip was puffy. He had two small bruises on his neck where Kenny had grabbed him. He had four bruises already visible on his chest and stomach, likely a few more to form. His lower abdominals were ripped and raw, bleeding in several places where he'd been dragged against the rough, salty concrete. His right hand was in similar condition, and his left hand was cut deeply and scraped. His legs had bruises up and down them. He had a burn on both hands, now.

He felt the dam of apathy strain as he viewed himself. The monstrous volume of his hurt and pain threatened to burst free, drowning him.

He turned away from the mirror, stepping into the shower to wash himself.

Thirty minutes later, he walked into his bedroom, threw his pajamas on, and looked out the window. It was only about four-thirty, but he was so _tired_ , physically and mentally and emotionally, and _god_ he wanted a rest.

 _I'll just sleep for a couple hours and then do my homework, and then go find Eren and Mik,_ he decided. _The house isn't so bad today._

As he crawled into bed, he caught a glance at the Ouija board on the ground, the triangle still resting between the H and I.

 _It doesn't even work,_ he thought, and threw his blanket up to his chin.

\------

"He's not answering," Eren said dejectedly, returning his phone to his pocket. "You'd think he hates us with the amount he ignores us."

With practice finally ending at six o'clock, the sun was down, and the two walked along in the dark to the Jaeger home. Periodically, bitter cold wind rushed up the road, rustling the leaves and raising goosebumps on both of their arms.

Mikasa shivered, burying her nose in her scarf for a moment before she shrugged. "We can't just assume that because we had a good conversation with him yesterday, he's okay. His mom died like, a few weeks ago. He's probably still hurting."

"I just wish he'd let us help him," he replied with a sigh.

Mikasa was quiet for a moment. "I think he knows he can ask us for help, if he needs it. If he wants to be alone, it's best to leave him alone. He's probably just sleeping or studying with music on. I don't think he'd ignore your calls on purpose."

They walked thoughtfully. A car drove past, the driver playing heavy metal music loud enough that they could hear it over his obnoxiously loud engine.

Mikasa's fingers laced into Eren's, and she looked sideways at his face.

"Did you mean it yesterday? You said you loved me."

Eren's eyes widened as a blush rose to his cheeks, and he squeezed her hand in response.

"Yeah. Yeah, I did."

\--------

Armin woke to the sound of something tapping.

He rolled over groggily, momentarily confused at the lack of light in his room. He grabbed his bedpost, pulling himself up with a groan.

_Tap tap tap_

What was that sound? Neighbors being noisy?

He threw the blankets off himself with a groan, and looked at the clock positioned on a bedside table nearby.

 _Holy cow, eight thirty?_ He wondered, _That nap was_ way _too long._

_Tap tap tap_

"Dad?" He asked out loud, stumbling to the door and attempting to open it. Finding it locked, he struggled with his sleepy hands to spin the lock open. He pulled the door open, revealing the dark hallway outside his room. The bathroom light around the corner was still on, the fan from his shower still running quietly. He must have forgotten to turn them off.

He walked to the bathroom, half-expecting to see a huge monster or something standing in there. He walked around the corner, finding the bathroom exactly as he'd left it. He flipped the fan off and glanced at the shower warily.

 _Why do I always remember that one scene from psycho when I look at my shower?_ He wondered.

_Tap tap tap_

He left his bathroom and walked down the hall, finding the light switches. Without the fan on, the house seemed unnaturally quiet, and he almost turned it back on. He reached to turn the hall lights on.

The moment he flipped the switch, though, there was a loud _POP_ , and all three light bulbs in the hall flickered out.

_Tap tap tap_

"Damn it," he muttered, walking back into his room. "All three? Really?"

He picked his phone off his desk, trying to remember when he'd placed it there.

**3 missed calls.**

"Huh," he said, walking back to sit on his messy bed. _Eren called three times. I promised I'd answer. Should I call back?_

_Tap tap tap_

Armin looked around. Now that he was slightly more awake, he realized the sound wasn't coming from outside the house. It wasn't even coming from outside his room.

He looked at the Ouija board, noticing the triangle hadn't moved away from the H and I.

But it _was_ moving. It lifted itself up, dropping thrice against the board.

_Tap_

_Tap_

_Tap_

Armin's blood ran cold, and tears jumped to his eyes.

_Tap_

_Tap_

_Tap_

"He-Hello?" He whispered.

The triangle moved by itself, sliding across the unholy board with a soft scraping sound. The eye that adorned it seemed to stare right at Armin.

_H-E-L-L-O_

"Who are you?" Armin asked, his legs threatening to drop him to the floor.

The triangle moved again.

_Y-O-U-R A-N-G-E-L_

He blinked in shock, _What?!_

But the triangle wasn't finished.

_Y-O-U C-A-L-L-E-D M-E_

"Holy shit," he muttered to himself, was this real? Was she here? "You came back?"

Before he asked anything else, the triangle began moving again. It slid eerily, not being touched by anything. It simply slid to a character and paused long enough to show that that was the intended letter before moving on.

_A-R-M-I-N I N-E-E-D Y-O-U-R H-E-L-P_

He sat on his bed, watching the board with wide eyes. "What? You know my name? You need MY help?"

_I N-E-E-D Y-O-U-R H-E-L-P_

He looked at the board with confusion. How could he help an angel? "Okay, how can I help?"

The board was still for a long, long moment before sliding back to life.

_G-I-V-E M-E Y-O-U-R B-L-O-O-D_

\------

Annie stepped through the portal, landing in the same street she'd landed in last time she'd arrived in Shiganshina. This time, however, the sun was down. She had to squint to see up the street.

She smiled. _Armin, I'm back!_

She set off at a trot in the direction of his house.

\------

"What?" He asked, "Why? You're an angel, what do you need blood for?"

The triangle was still, and suddenly, the temperature in the house began lowering slowly.

_B-L-O-O-D_

_B-L-O-O-D_

_B-L-O-O-D_

"Oh, fuck," Armin realized, and his arm hairs rose on end with the surge of fear that rushed through him. "You're not an angel."

His bedroom door _slammed_ shut, and the light above his bed sputtered out.

_Tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap_

\------

Something was wrong.

She could smell demons. Big ones.

A mid-tier Despair smelled like rotting flesh. The smell would be stronger if the demon was stronger.

Here, it smelled like a damn slaughterhouse.

She saw the house in the distance, and she unslung her spear.

\-----

Armin could barely make out the words being spelled on the board. The triangle was no longer sliding. It was levitating in the air, and slapping down on the letters it wanted to use.

_I W-I-L-L F-U-C-K-I-N-G K-I-L-L Y-O-U Y-O-U B-A-S-T-A-R-D I W-I-L-L R-A-P-E Y-O-U-R D-E-A-D B-O-D-Y A-N-D B-U-R-N Y-O-U-R H-O-U-S-E D-O-W-N_

He watched, his eyes getting wider as he stepped back, away from the board. The little triangle continued tapping away, and he watched in terror. Horror. Pure, raw panic.

In the middle of the dark room now, his back bumped into something massive and hairy.

\-----

She heard him scream.

Legs flying faster than she'd ever pushed them, she kept her gaze on the building. Despair was there. She could kill it if she was fast enough.

As she approached the front yard, she almost missed the scurrying form of Apathy hurrying across the street at her. It was perhaps third-tier, and _not_ in her range of concern. Apathy was built like a velociraptor. It stood about a foot shorter than her, its jaws open wide as it sprinted in a mad fury.

She ducked low, her jaw grit in pure, holy wrath.

The creature leapt at her, and she angled her spear just right, planting it in the ground to stop Apathy in its tracks. The tip speared through the monster's neck, and she lifted it up and hurled it with a ripping _crack_. The demon squealed loudly as it died, its body tearing away from its head, which stayed mounted on the spear.

Suddenly, a hulking form burst out of Armin's window. In the dark, Annie couldn't tell exactly how large it was, but she flicked Apathy's head away to take aim at it.

Despair grabbed the lip of the roof and flipped itself up. She swung her arm over her head and _hurled_ the spear at the retreating form.

Despair spun around, catching the spear easily before it could be impaled by it. The creature whirled around and _whipped_ the spear back at Annie. She dodged to the side and felt the spear slam into the grass where she'd been standing. She looked up to see it hop away into a tree.

It had disappeared by the time she'd pulled the spear from the grass. As the creature's influence departed, a few of the lights in the house flickered to life.

\------

Armin sat in the corner of the room. The Ouija board had been silent for a moment, but he didn't stop.

He'd torn his trousers off, grabbed the razor hidden beneath his bed, and done his best to satisfy the creature that wanted his blood.

The huge, hairy creature that had slammed his door, knocked out the lights, and opened the window.

He hadn't seen it, but _god_ he'd felt it.

He pressed the sharp edge of the razor against his thigh, pushing deep enough that blood oozed out immediately. This was the seventh cut. it was painful in a ... sickeningly delightful way. As if he'd been yearning for it. As if he knew he deserved it. As if he was fixing something. He'd have to switch legs soon, or else guys would be able to see the cuts when he changed clothes for gym class.

It took him a moment to notice a familiar presence entering through his window.

Warmth and comfort immediately spread through the house, driving the darkness out. Driving the cold out. It was as if Armin's very spirit was sitting in front of a blazing fire that his mother had built just for him, like she used to do in the wintertime. 

Suddenly, he heard a noise that he didn't know he'd been waiting for. It was the most wonderful noise he'd ever heard. 

_Thump thump_

_Thump thump_

_Thump thump_

Armin's eyes widened. He fought for words, to  _say_ something, but he couldn't think properly.  Was it her? Could it be? 

It _had_ to be. He could practically see her standing in the room, looking down at him.

Looking... down at him...

He became all too aware of the blood seeping out of his thighs. The faint, false pleasure he'd felt at hurting himself was gone in an instant, replaced immediately by an almost overwhelming guilt. She'd seen him cutting. 

_Thump thump_

_Thump thump_

_Thump Thump_

Armin pulled the razor away from his skin. It took some blood with it.

"You came back," he said quietly.

_Thump_

All was quiet. He sat there, relishing the warmth that she'd brought into his home. He felt the fear, the pain, the misery, everything, all wash away under her glorious aura. 

An idea occurred to him. 

"Hey," He said, pointing to the nearby Ouija board, "can I talk to you using that?"

She was quiet for a moment.

_Thump thump thump_

"Can we try?" Armin asked with a sniff. Had he been crying again?

He grabbed the board and crawled to the middle of the room, setting it down in front of him.

_Thump thump thump_

The noise came from practically right next to him.

"Just try… please." Armin said with a choke. He placed the triangle face-down on the board and grabbed a notebook, ready to write down everything she said. He didn't want to forget any of it.

Slowly, the triangle began shifting, as if the one moving it was unsure of herself. Armin wrote the words, and then looked at the sentence she'd spelled for him.

_I have a lot of explaining to do._

\-------------------

(Forty Thousand Words!!!) 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Notes:
> 
> I haven't even started the chapter upon writing this note, but I just thought I'd throw this out: I hope perverts aren't expecting smut-scenes in the future, because they'll be disappointed. 
> 
> Okay, so I had a BLAST describing heaven. I think it's the most beautiful place, and so I held nothing back with the descriptions here, lol. Sorry if you got bored.
> 
> Edit: In fact, I went out of my way to add extra description to make sure the reader felt right at home in Heaven. Hope y'all make it.
> 
> WOW, I had a blast with the school 'why do people fight' scenes too. It was an awesome opportunity to bring in some of the 104th, and I've been wondering how I'm going to get Ymir and Historia in here. I'm glad they made it. Also Oruo. But armin's pretty cheery, don't you think? OR is it just the calm before the storm? FIND OUT IN THE NEXT INSTALLMENT OF DONT LET ME DOWN, EXCLUSIVELY ON AO3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
> 
> Who's the chemistry teacher? I don't fucking have a clue. \\( '-')/ \\('-' )/
> 
> Eren and Jean are so damn alike, I think they'd be best friends if they just let themselves, lol.
> 
> Holy cow, Armin's mom is not easy to write, she's the reason this chapter's gonna be freakin late and you're all going to kill me.
> 
> These chapters just keep getting looon...geeeeeerrrrr.
> 
> Shiiiiz, Kenny's a serious douche, dude. I'm only halfway through this scene, and I'm like "Damn, this dude's gotta chill."
> 
> Maybe I'll edit out some of the worse bully stuff. I was going to have some Saw crap in here but I changed my mind. But don't think you're home free, we still have to deal with Despair up in here.
> 
> Oh-KAY, wondering why Armin is so chill at the end of the bully scene? Consider this bully: Apathy
> 
> ALRIGHT THAT WAS CREEPY AND HOPEFULLY SCARY ENOUGH FOR YOU. Holy ballsack, guys, this was a long chapter. I'm ready to just go to bed now (it's quarter to one right now, my roommate's gonna kill me).
> 
> Oh-KAY, this is the end of this chapter! Sorry this wasn't up on sunday, that's my bad. Turns out that keeping a schedule is a professional thing which I am not capable of handling, lol. But it feels like I'm not doing so bad. I hope you guys like this chapter, I had a lot of fun writing it. It's pretty... intense. Sorry if I didn't do good enough trigger warnings at the beginning. 
> 
> The title of the chapter is after the title of the first Amnesia game. If you like creepy stuff, play it. 
> 
> Alright-o. Love you guys! See you next time! 
> 
> -FMG


	6. Help

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hitch confronts Sanderson. Armin gets to talk to Annie. Levi/Hanji Fluff. Eren and Mikasa are Concerned when Armin does not go to school. Reiner and Bertholdt are trapped in a bad situation. Annie snoops.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   
>  References to Self-Harm, Probably stressful situations for the reader, Levi's language, ... some gratuitous Levihanj fluff, discussion of self-harm, talking about the Ouija board, talking about Bullying, and then, a big motherfuckin battle scene with some *intense* Blood and Gore content, including character death.  
> Also, sorry about this, but there needed to be a chapter without much Armin/Annie in it, I know you're mad, this one only has one scene of them together, but I PROMISE I'll make it up to you. I threw Levihanj in there to help you guys out.

Christoff Sanderson sat behind his desk pensively. He stroked his jet-black beard as he went over the details within a report, given him by Team Leader Brackenburg.

_ How many Military Police does it take to fight a fourth-tier Resentment?  _ He joked idly, scanning the details. _ Apparently, six. _

_ Unless they're Leonhardt _ , he added.  _ Then it only takes one. _

Suddenly, a knock came at his door. A hasty, stormy one. Sanderson had long since learned the difference between a peaceable knock and one that intended to begin conflict once the door was permitted to open. This knock was from someone who was frustrated.

_ That's the seventh angry knock today, _ he mused, _ that's not half bad. _

The door was a light-colored aspen wood, thick and solid without a window. It muffled the sound of the knock only slightly, but he could still discern the person on the other side based solely on the position and rhythm of the knock.

"Miss Dreisse, come in," he said loudly enough for the sound to carry through the door. He placed the report in the first desk drawer, leaving the surface empty and clean.

She opened the door with a somewhat surprised expression that only lasted long enough for him to recognize it. It was quickly replaced with her irritation.

"Sir-" she started, but he raised a hand to silence her.

"Please close the door behind you, and have a seat," he said. His voice was deep and authoritative. It was also unintentionally unfriendly.

She did so, huffing as she planted herself in the large leather chair. The chair had multiple purposes. It was shorter than the desk, putting any visitor below their division leader, forcing them to look up at him. It was also remarkably comfortable, and so helped the numerous angry guests relax somewhat.

"You are upset in the behalf of Miss Annie Leonhardt, specifically concerning the letter you received in relation to assigning her a team, correct?" He asked.

She was again impressed, but recovered quickly, leaning forward. "Yes, sir. I think it's unfair to punish her for a single failure. Her file should be chock-full of positive comments from myself and her past team leaders. She works harder than anyone else, and to put her on a team would only drag her down."

"Past team leaders, huh? You have been her team leader for four years, correct? What happened to her last team leader?" Sanderson asked, placing his elbows on the desk.

She shifted uncomfortably, wincing at being put in a corner from the first exchange. "Yeah, four years. Her last team leader, he, um, died, sir. His name was Thomas Wagner."

"How did he die?"

She bit her lip. She clearly had not foreseen the conversation moving this direction. "He was eaten, sir. By a Tier-Fourteen Sloth."

"Was Leonhardt there?"

"No, sir. She was on a solo mission elsewhere, I think."

"Would her team leader have died if she had been on the mission with him?" Sanderson asked. His voice was level and completely devoid of warmth. Again, unintentionally.

She sighed, still chewing her lip with a shrug. "Probably not, sir, but-"

"Do you know how many Divisions of the Military Police there are, Miss Dreisse?" he asked, leaning forward slightly. He didn't remove his eyes from her once. He'd taken a few classes on being commanding and authoritative, and he applied some of the things he'd learned there here.

"Seven, sir, but-"

"And how many districts are there in each division?"

"Seven! But-"

"Hush, Miss Dreisse, let me finish," he said, raising a hand. She huffed again, looking at him with an expression of irritation mixed with expectation. "How many teams per district?"

She paused, trying to remember. It wasn't common for people to know the numbers behind the Guardian Angels, and it was his own personal background vendetta to teach them. "Wasn't it around forty?" She guessed.

"Close," he said with a single finger. "We are in the Gryphon Division. Our districts, and most other districts in the other Divisions of the Military Police, have thirty teams per district."

Her eyebrows raised. "That's not as high as it used to be, is it?"

He shook his head, "No. It's not. Most districts used to have forty-five to fifty teams per district. With those numbers, we had somewhere near fifteen thousand Guardian Angels on staff. But the Scouting Legion has been suffering huge losses. It's been slow, but it's due to the massive Titans that are currently raging in the Middle East. Do you know what a Behemoth is?"

She tipped her head back and forth, thoughtful. "Aren't they just really big Titans?" She asked. He noted that her voice had lost much of its irritation and iciness.

_ It must be the chair. That chair hasn't failed me yet, _ he thought with an inner smile, but his face remained somewhat stony and questioning.

"A Behemoth is a Demon that has outgrown the title of Titan. We're talking about Titans that break the Thirtieth Tier," Sanderson explained.

Her face paled slightly. "I'd heard of them, but I didn't know that they were  _ that  _ strong," she whispered.

"The Military Police have been supplying staff for the Scouting Legion for a few years now, sending somewhere between two and five hundred Angels into the ranks of the scouting legion per expedition. On good expeditions, probably ninety percent of our troops return. On bad ones... less than forty percent. The Military Police currently staff less than nine thousand Angels."

She listened intently, her eyes widening and narrowing at all the right places. Her face had lost all of its iciness.

"Now, Miss Dreisse, what do you think this has to do with Annie Leonhardt?" He asked, leaning backward. "Do you still think I'm punishing her?"

The woman leaned forward, resting her chin on her hand, whose elbow rested on her knee. "I... honestly don't know."

"How many Tier-Six demons have you killed in your ten years as a Guardian Angel, Miss Dreisse?"

She shrugged, "Maybe twenty. Some when I was stationed in in Trost, some in Ghent, and I know I took down only three in Stohess. My teams helped."

Sanderson looked at her for a moment before saying, "Miss Leonhardt kills at least one demon a week that is above Tier-Six. She's kept that record for almost four years, now. And she does it by herself."

He let that implication hang in the air for a moment. The woman was stunned, her jaw hanging open slightly.  _ You would know that already if you'd been keeping record, like team leaders are supposed to do, _ he considered telling her, but decided not to open that can of worms.

He took a deep breath, letting it out calmly. He stood up, and stroked his beard again as he turned to look at Archonia. "We need tougher MP's. And Annie Leonhardt is one of the toughest we have. She has the greatest stamina out of any Guardian Angel I've ever heard of, except maybe Erwin Smith. She takes down tough demons by herself day in and day out, taking only short breaks. It may have been acceptable for her to operate solo under Greyson, but Gryphon Division is my assignment now, so I'm moving to assign Miss Leonhardt a team, which she will be able to protect. I don't think she'll ever reach her full potential as long as she operates alone. Once she's been a team leader long enough, she'll be a district leader, and will be able to train hundreds of people how to fight harder and more effectively, protecting them as well. That decision will be final, regardless of her success in Shiganshina. It is for the good of all humanity."

The team leader behind him regained some of the iciness to her voice.

"This is supposed to be Heaven, though! She's  _ happy  _ solo! She joined the Military Police because she likes the work, but she is  _ terrible  _ with people, trust me. I'm her roommate. A team will drag her down. A team could get her killed!"

"A team would be able to recover her body; something she is not capable of alone," Sanderson said placidly.

The woman huffed again. "So why did you ask me to choose her teammates?"

Sanderson left his back to Dreisse, allowing himself to smile, knowing she couldn't see it. "Because I know you'll choose people who won't drag her down or get her killed."

She was speechless as he turned back to her, continuing. "I hereby give you full permission to search the Gryphon Division for the most elite individuals we have to offer. You have a week, Miss Dreisse. Choose wisely. You are dismissed."

She sat for a moment, shocked silent, before rising and departing. She bid a quiet "Good-bye," and then the door was closed.

He sat at his desk again, satisfied with the result of the exchange. He pulled the report from his desk again, and allowed his mind to refocus on Brackenburg's team until another knock came at his door. He could tell it was his secretary.

"Christiana?" He asked, "Come in."

The short, cute girl stuck her head in quickly, looking distressed.

"What is it?" He asked.

"Sorry sir, it's Dok. He says that Commander Smith is requesting Military Police, he's asking for the best."

Sanderson sighed, looking down at his desk. If Smith was asking for the Military Police's best, then that meant they were going on a particularly dangerous expedition. Sanderson couldn't change who were the best, and he couldn't send others, since Dok would personally inventory the individuals before they were deployed.

"He'll get our best, then," he sighed.

\---------

_ How do I explain any of this? _

Armin sat expectantly, staring at the board, where her hands rested, awaiting her story.

_ Where do I begin? _ she wondered silently. She'd been daydreaming of having a real conversation with the boy, and here she had an opportunity, but she had no idea what to say.

"What's your name?" He asked, as if he could sense her uneasiness.

She nodded. That was as good a place to start as any. She scooted closer to him, so that she was almost touching him where she knelt. With unsteady hands, she moved the triangle to spell her name.

_ Annie Leonhardt _ , he wrote onto his notebook, watching the board. She turned to look in his face and saw him beaming.

"Annie Leonhardt," he said slowly. The way he drew out the syllables made her spine tingle a little. She liked him saying her name. She wanted to hear him say it again. "You have a beautiful name."

She paused, grateful that he couldn't see her face, which had blossomed into a shade of pink at his compliment. She moved the triangle again, spelling out a quick  _ Thanks _ .

"You're welcome," he grinned. "So you're an angel, huh?"

She shrugged, and began spelling her response back to him.

_ Yes, but not like you know. There's a whole brigade of us. We're called the Military Police. There are two other brigades too. They do similar stuff. _

She found that she had to shorten everything she wanted to talk about for the sake of time. It had taken her almost a minute and a half just to write that short message.

"Okay," he responded, "So you told me last time that my Mom asked you to come."

She nodded, sticking her tongue out for concentration.

_ I met your Mom on Monday morning. She's very very well, and happy, and safe. She misses you a lot. And she worries, too. _

Armin's face crumbled a little bit, and he brought a hand to his face as he wrote what she spelled with his other hand.  _ He's so strong _ , she realized,  _ he's been just carrying this around for weeks _ . As she thought, she realized that the one and only thing she wanted to do for the crying boy was hold him, to tell him that everything was okay, and that she would protect him.

She continued spelling.

_ She loves you a lot. But it's okay to let go. You'll see her again. Heaven is an amazing place. _

Armin finished writing, and sniffled. "Thank you," he choked. "Thank you so much. God, I miss her. I've been trying not to think about her, but... I'm so... I just..."

She started to move the triangle around again, saving him from further emotional breakdown.

_ She sent me to investigate your depression. _

He wrote her message and pulled his hand away, furrowing his brow. "What do you mean?"

_ Armin, _ she spelled,  _ you do not have depression like other people have depression. You have a parasite called Despair. _

"Despair? How is that different from depression?" He asked, running a hand through his long hair.

_ Depression is a mental illness. Despair is a demon. Literally. You are being haunted by a demon, and it is the physical cause of your misery. _

His hand shook as he transposed her message.

"Oh my god," he muttered. "That thing that was just in my room...  _ it's  _ been putting me through hell?"

She paused, taking a breath, preparing her next explanation.

_ The world is a battlefield. It is infested with creatures called Demons. Demons are the physical manifestation of negative ideals and emotional conditions. They are named by the ideal they promote and then ranked how strong they are. The monster that has been haunting you is Despair. For some reason, it has attached itself to you. The longer it spends with you, the stronger it gets, and the more able it is to hurt you physically. _

She finished her speech by releasing the small triangle and rolling her shoulders. Spelling that many words for that long made her arms ache a little. Plus, spelling out every word made her message come out somewhat differently than if she'd simply spoken it. Given, if she'd spoken it, there would have been a lot more "I guess"s and "I think"s.

Armin finished writing, looking at the words with an expression that Annie couldn't quite place. She watched his eyes with interest. What was he thinking? It was almost as if she could see the cogs grinding in his head, crunching numbers and creating an earth-shattering conclusion.

"How can I fight it?" He asked suddenly.

_ Physically, you cannot. What you have to do is simply endure. I'm actually here to hunt the monster down and send it back to Hell. So hopefully you will not have to endure long. _

"Wait, how many of you are there? Are there more than one of you angels here?" He asked, suddenly looking around his room.

When he looked back at the board, she responded.

_ Just me. I work alone. For now, at least. Most Angels work with a team but...  _ here she paused, trying to word an explanation. _ I don't play well with others. _

Armin laughed, and Annie watched him with adoration. He seemed so ... happy. Carefree.

At least, his face looked that way. He still sat in his underwear, and blood still oozed out of him in places. She gave the small bloody razor on the ground a death-glare, wishing she could just will it to disappear.

"Hey," Armin said with a smile. "Can I see you again? I only saw you for like, less than a second last time, and I... want to see you. Again."

Annie looked at him, and felt something within her heart do a little flip upon remembering when he'd seen her and called her beautiful. Had that really only been two days ago? It felt like eons.

Before she could begin moving the triangle, there was a large noise outside Armin's door, and she jumped in surprise, spear in hand. Demons? Monsters? Sanderson?

"Armin?" Came a friendly, adult voice. "Are you hungry? I got the doughnuts out."

The door swung open, revealing Fredrich Arlert. He seemed relaxed, and he had a smile on his face. "I got home earlier than-"

He froze, looking down at Armin. Poor, sweet Armin, who sat criss-cross on the floor, in his underwear, covered in his own blood, with an Ouija board in front of him.

"... I... expected..." he finished slowly and quietly, heartbreak almost tangible in his tone. "Oh,  _ God _ , Armin..."

\---------

"Did anyone notice your black eye at school today?" Hanji asked. She stood in her kitchen, cutting up vegetables.

"No," Levi responded, his eyes on his book, "You're too good at applying makeup for that. Two hundred students stare at my face all day, none of them notice anything."

"Tuesday night matchups were still a bad idea, though," Hanji stated as she pulled a jar of peanut butter from a cupboard. "You could have gotten worse than a black eye."

He sat across the way in what qualified as a different room, although still within eyesight of the kitchen. The clock showed that it was nearing nine-thirty, and that meant Hanji was getting hungry. "You aren't smearing that awful stuff on celery, are you?"

She humphed. "Even though I  _ usually  _ eat weird food, peanut butter on celery is completely normal, and actually," she emphasized by taking a bite, "delicious!"

"You're not kissing me with peanut-butter breath," Levi deadpanned. "Shit's gross."

"You'll change your mind," she said, "Do you want anything to eat? When are you leaving?"

"I could do with tea, actually," he said, glancing over at her. "But don't try to fly it over to me with that stupid-ass drone again, I'll just walk over and get it. I'm picking Mikasa up in half an hour from Jaeger's house. Hopefully she's doing his War History homework for him."

"We can only hope," she replied. "Is Armin with them?"

"Hell if I know," he grunted, "Mik says he's been flying solo since his mom died."

Before Hanji could reply, her cell phone burst into a song from near her cutting board. She scooped it up and answered.

"Hello, this is Hanji?"

Levi sighed, glancing at the tea that she'd started for him, but neglected for the phone. He noted the page he was on and snapped the book closed loudly, sighing at the same volume as he stood and joined her in the kitchen.

"Emergency appointment?" She said into the phone, "That's fine, bump Miss Warburton's appointment forward, she's going to ask us to do that anyway."

He picked up the kettle, pouring heated water into his mug before dropping a tea bag in to join it. He fished a fork from a drawer and used it to hold the bag under the water.

"He found him  _ what _ ?" She whispered shrilly, "Jesus Christ, yes, make the appointment. Eleven AM, that's fine. Thanks, Melissa. Have a good night. Bye."

Hanji hung up the phone, her eyes weary and worn. She bit her lip, crossing her arms and pushing her weird celery concoction away. She turned and leaned against the counter, looking down at her feet.

"Hey," Levi said, "What's up? You were over the clouds a second ago about peanut butter celery, now you look like half of my students."

She shrugged, still looking down. "Patient confidentiality."

He sighed inwardly. With sly maneuvering, he placed himself at her side and tilted her face towards him with a finger. "Don't look so down, it pisses me off."

She tried to fight a little grin, but it showed itself anyway.

He continued, "Whoever needs help, you'll help them tomorrow. And their lives will change, and you'll be the one who helped them back on their feet. So eat your damn celery before I throw it away."

"You always know just what to say," she sighed, looking back into his eyes. "How did I end up with such a nice guy?"

"Nice guy must be synonymous with asshole, or else of us is very confused," he replied, not breaking eye contact.

She grinned, and threw her arms around his shoulders with disgruntled groan, nuzzling into his shoulder. "I just want people to be happy."

"You make  _ me  _ happy," Levi replied, "Does that count?"

She scoffed. "You only talk sweet when I'm upset, I should get sad about things more often."

He grunted, but wrapped his arms around her back, pulling her closer. She hummed peacefully as he ran his fingers through her hair.

Finally, she looked up into his eyes.

"Have you unchanged your mind yet?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"

"I want to kiss you, but I have peanut butter breath," she said, sticking her lower lip out, "Have you changed your mind about peanut butter yet?"

He narrowed his eyes, before freeing the smallest of smirks as he leaned down, pressing his lips against hers. She melted into him, running her hand through his shorter hair with a contented sigh.

After a sweet moment, they parted, and Hanji ran a single hand along his cheek.

"You changed your mind," she grinned.

"Shut up," he said.

\-----------

Armin listened to his father make the call.

He felt Annie stay in his room, eventually joining him on his bed.

But he coudn't talk to her. He didn't want to. The guilt was as oppressive as it was crushing. So he locked his mind, and lay pillow until he fell asleep.

\--------

The clock on the wall in his Algebra II classroom read 9:53 AM.

Eren's phone buzzed in his pocket. He looked up at Mr. Zacharias, who was gesturing to an expression with several x's and y's with his back turned to the class.

He slipped the phone quietly out of his pocket to read the text message from Mikasa.

_ I don't think he's here today. Historia says he wasn't in AP Government this morning. _

He grimaced, looking back up at his teacher to ensure he was safe for a few moments to reply to her message. His thumbs flew.

_ Shit, he hasn't texted me back either. Should we stop by his house at lunch? _

He sent the message and placed the device on his lap, reigning in his focus to the expression on the board. He copied a little of what Mr. Zacharias was scribbling, and noted something that the man said about root functions, or something. Finally, Mikasa replied.

_ Can't, some weird debate meeting then. After school? _

He shot a quick affirmative back to her, and then put his phone back in his pocket.

_ What's going on with Armin? _ He wondered.

\----------

Armin sat quietly in the passenger seat of his dad's car as they drove to the Olive Branch center, where Dr. Zoe's offices were housed. There had been a frost overnight, and much of the trees were still showing signs of having frozen. The road was covered in lines where the cars had removed the frost by driving upon it. His dad drove safely on the tracks that other vehicles had left, even though the road wasn't slippery. He disregarded the fact that the road wasn't slippery, even in the purlieu of the tracks, where the frost still clung to the ground in billions of tiny crystals.

Even the trees were frosty. When they had left the house, Armin noted that the tree outside his window was bearing frosty branches, and the last of the small quantity of leaves had fallen.

The man pulled the car into the parking lot, shifting the vehicle into park with a sigh. They hadn't spoken since the night before. Even then, few words had been exchanged.

Armin had sat, absolutely petrified before his father. He had attempted to hide none of the incriminating evidence to suggest a lack of mental stability, and had instead simply said, "God, Dad. Why didn't you knock?"

He'd been met by a hug. The man had confiscated the Ouija board, personally cleaning Armin's wounds. He'd done his best to let his son know of his endless parental love for him, begged him to talk, held him, handed him his pajamas, and invited him downstairs for doughnuts through teary eyes.

Armin had said nothing. Whether from embarrassment or from an inability to explain Annie's existence, he wasn't sure. He'd simply shut down the portion of his brain that communicated with others. He didn't want to think anymore, he simply wanted to close his eyes and fade away painlessly.

They walked in together. The man checked Armin in, and then they sat in the waiting area together.

He was trying. He was so desperate for his son to be okay that he was putting in every possible effort. He made comments about the magazines supplied by the office. He noted verbally that the decorations had changed, and that there were some new paintings on the walls, all hung since they had last visited, nearly a year ago.

Armin noticed the clock near the front desk. It was one of his favorite clocks he'd ever seen. Instead of an analog clock face, it was simply a massive cogwheel, decorated with the numbers of the clock, hanging on a single peg, which had an arrow pointing up at a number on the wheel. Instead of the peg with the arrow rotating to point at the numbers around the wheel, the entire clock face rotated, so that the time of day was always being pointed to by the beg that the whole ensemble hung on.

The peg was pointing between the ten and eleven.

So, for the first time since the night before, he spoke.

"How did you get work off?"

The man was caught off guard by the question, and he tipped his head at his son. "Well, I didn't."

"What?"

"I didn't get work off," his dad said, "I expect I'll have some explaining to do when I get there tomorrow."

"Dad, you're a team leader now, you can't just not show up," He said with a pained expression.

"Well, I called this morning, and it turns out the phrase 'Family Emergency' carries a lot of weight," the man replied, staring at a painting of a woman at a well.

"Armin?" Came a friendly voice, and he looked up to see Dr. Zoe smiling at him.

The last time he'd seen her had been at Mikasa's house for some kind of gathering a month or so ago. It had only been in passing, but she didn't look as though she'd changed since then.

He stood up, walking away from his dad and into the hall where she gestured.

"We'll take the first room on the left," she said, "The one with the food in it."

Food?

He walked through the designated entry, and sure enough, there was a small table with a few sandwiches displayed neatly, as well as a few bottles of soda, and some chips.

The rest of the small room was furnished with white lounge chairs, a coffee table, and some mini bookshelves containing random books on biology, chemistry, astrology, and a dozen other topics.

He glanced at the food, quickly identifying it as another play from the woman to get her patients to talk. He flopped into a lounge chair and took a deep breath, closing his eyes.

The door closed with a click, and he listened to her seat herself on the long couch positioned adjacent to the table with food.

"Want a sandwich?" She asked, and he heard her grab a bag of chips before feeling it land in his lap.

"No thanks," he replied, "And these better not be Cheetos on my lap."

She cursed, and he left his eyes closed as the bag was removed from his lap, and replaced with a new one.

"They’re not," she said with a chuckle, seating herself again.

He opened his eyes, checking.

They were Cheetos.

He couldn't help but snort and grin, which brought the woman to laugh out loud.

She leaned over, taking the chips and opening them, tossing one into her mouth. "I don't know what you have against Cheetos," she said, "They're chunks of cheesy crunch. They're amazing."

"They're greasy and they get my fingers too dirty," he replied despite himself.

_ I just want to be quiet and ignore everything, _ he thought, _ I don't want to talk today. _

"Sometimes greasy things are good," she shrugged, "I cooked a mouse in bacon grease one time, it wasn't half bad."

Again, Armin found himself grinning. Dr. Zoe was unmatched in quirkiness and enthusiasm. It was difficult to  _ not  _ talk to her. But he just sighed loudly, trying to melt completely into the lounge chair.

"So, how are you, Armin? It's been a while since we've sat down like this. I had to dust off your file and everything."

He shrugged, "Not that great, really."

"Well that's good, then," came the reply.

He opened his eyes, looking over at her. "Huh?"

"Yep," she nodded with a grin, "That's good. Is that surprising?"

He tipped his head, and some strands of his dirty blond hair fell over his eyes. "Well, now I can expect some sort of backwards but forward thinking, right? You're going to explain that I'm normal for feeling bad over the past weeks? That no one should feel great after their mom dies?"

"You take the fun out of psychology," she chuckled, "But you're right, to a point. It's good you're feeling bad, especially about the death of your mother. It means you were close. But it also means you're still feeling. Often times, we see that people with depression as severe as yours lost motivation altogether. You're incredibly motivated for someone with depression like-"

"I don't have depression," he cut her off. She wanted to talk? Fine. He'd talk.

"You don't?" She asked, surprised. "Wait, wasn't  _ I _ the one to diagnose you?"

"Mhmm," he hummed. "But I don't have depression. I'm being haunted."

He kept his stare directed at the ceiling, not wanting to see the look on her face. If he had, however, he would have seen the intrigued expression that had overwhelmed her.

"Haunted?" She asked quietly. Armin was tempted to look at her, because her voice had lost something that he couldn't place. It was still enthusiastic and playful, but it was no longer... empty. Her one-word response now carried weight that couldn't be explained by him.

"By a demon," he said simply. He'd long since researched that he had doctor-patient confidentiality, and she wouldn't tell anyone important what he'd said.

"What kind of demon?"

Armin's skin bristled. "Despair."

"Any idea what tier?" She asked, almost casually. As if she hadn't meant to ask it.

"Huh?" He asked, finally looking at her. She was leaning towards him slightly, her Cheetos abandoned at her side. She looked over the top of her glasses at him as if he had just solved world hunger with a very very complex math problem. "Tier?"

She shrugged, "I've heard demon strength explained in tiers. But is your demon strong?"

He blinked. He hadn't expected the conversation to go like this. It was like she was asking for details about the monster under his bed. In a way, she sort of  _ was _ , but it felt odd for her to be taking it seriously.

_ I guess a woman who can fry a mouse in bacon grease would take demons seriously, _ he decided,  _ that's convenient. _

"I... think so?"

"How do you know you have a demon haunting you?"

"I have a Guardian Angel. She told me," he said. "Her name's Annie."

"Is that why you had an Ouija board? You were talking to your Angel?"

_ She's taking all of this very well, regardless of her antecedent belief in demons _ , he noted.

"Yeah," he said, "Sort of. I met her the first time on Monday. Then she left after school the next day. Then she came back last night, right when I'd started cutting myself."

Hanji nodded, mulling the information. "At what point were you hitting yourself?"

"Huh?" He asked, confused again. "Hitting myself? I haven't been hitting myself."

Her eyebrows raised, glancing at her clipboard. She flipped a page, and then looked back at the boy. "So... who's been hitting you?"

It took Armin a full five seconds to remember that he'd had the  _ shit  _ beat out of him the day previous. What a thing to forget; but it was understandable considering the rest of the events that day.

"Ohhhh," he realized, "Did my dad think I did all of this to myself? I hadn't even thought of that. No, I got beat up after school yesterday. Then I started cutting when the demon started threatening me through the Ouija board."

"Whoa," she said, her eyebrows raised. "That's a rough day."

He shrugged. "I've had worse."

She grit her teeth. "I assume you're not going to tell me who's been hitting you like this?"

"A boy named Kenny Ackerman," he said, "I'll tell you because I got beat up for telling on him when I didn't even do it, so I figure I should at least get to tell on him, since I already got beat up for it."

Hanji dropped her pen. She stooped to grab it as she fought for words. "An Ackerman? Like Levi and Mikasa?"

He shook his head, "Same last name, but no relationship. They have the same great great grandfather or something."

Hanji was silent for a moment, and then nodded. "So what should we do about it?"

Armin shrugged. "Annie said she was here to kill the demon. Apparently that will solve my depression. That'd be great."

"So how do we solve your bullies, then?" She asked, tapping her nose with the pen.

"Wait til he graduates in June?" Armin suggested.

She scoffed, "It may look like I'm okay with you right now, but there's no way in  _ hell  _ that I'm letting anyone ever touch you again. You have every right to be able to go to school and enjoy your learning time like any other student."

It was Armin's turn to scoff. "I don't know, I take it pretty well."

She stared at him, with her mouth slightly open. "Excuse me?"

He shrugged. "If I'm miserable enough, then I enjoy getting hurt. Call it whatever you want, but -"

"Armin, there was a point I was going to make earlier, before you cut me off. I was going to say that when people are in as bad of a shape as you're in, they lose motivation and fall into apathy. That's a dangerous place to be. Have you been having feelings like this?"

He shrugged. "Yesterday, after Kenny left me alone, I was laying on the ground, and I couldn't bring myself to care about any of it. Like, it sucked, but I just laid there, not even wanting to put energy into caring about it. I shook the feeling off, but it was kind of nice while it lasted."

She sat back, thinking heavily. "Okay, so our first step is to take care of some bullies, and to help Annie take care of Despair for you. After that, hopefully apathy won’t be a problem, but you need to know that we’re going to address it together if it ever shows again. What do you propose in relation to your bullies?"

He shrugged, "Change schools?"

She shook her head, "We  _ could  _ do that, if you think it'd help, but I want to try something first. I have an idea, would you be willing to try it?"

He shrugged again, leaning back against his lounge chair. "I'll hear it."

"I think you should ask for some help. Annie first, but then someone else. Maybe Eren or Mikasa."

Armin tilted his head back and forth. "Eren and Mikasa have their own concerns to think about. Mikasa told us about what happened to her parents on monday. They're probably still trying to get over that."

Hanji paused, "Like, the story involving the car accident?"

Armin cursed internally.  _ I should probably think before just telling her that her boyfriend killed six people six years ago. _

"Yeah, the accident, and some other things leading up to it," he bluffed.

She nodded. "So not Eren or Mikasa, who else?"

He shrugged. "I don't want to bother people."

"How about Levi?" She suggested.

He scowled slightly. "My history teacher? Why?"

"Because he cares about you," she answered. "He's more than just your history teacher, you know. He's your best friend's uncle, and he watched you grow up. Just because you don't look at him like that, he knows you better than you think. Will you ask him for help?"

He shrugged. He didn't like the idea of approaching the man about Kenny, but ... there was a chance that it would help. There was a possibility that Levi could do something that others wouldn't be able to do. Clearly, a stern talking to wasn't enough to stop Kenny from assaulting Armin. He had assumed that a long time ago, but having it confirmed only meant that he knew he wouldn't get help from administration.

Wasn't Mr. Ackerman "administration"? If he wasn't, then what? A friend? A family friend? Mikasa's uncle?

"Fine," He said finally, "I'll ask him. How about you? If I'm roping him into this, then you should get dragged in, too."

She laughed, "Okay. I actually have an idea, but we'll need to run it by Levi first. Will you ask him about it tomorrow after class?"

He sighed. "Yeah, okay. Whatever you say, Doctor Zoe."

"Hanji," she corrected, "Now, let's talk about your parents."

\------------

Reiner had had easier days before.

Bertholdt had been less terrified before.

But neither of them had ever seen so many comrades killed in battle before.

And neither of them had ever been so helpless before.

Eight out of the sixteen Guardian Angels in their squad sat atop eight Pegasus, each gripping their reins as if they were the only things left to hold. The noise of their steeds' hooves stamping nervously against the cave's floor echoed against the walls shrilly.

The mouth of the cave offered a view of the other side of the ravine in which they were trapped. Their eagle-horses could theoretically get them out if the situation, but they were cornered by a titan so large it didn't fit in the ravine, and so it puppy-guarded the opening by which they'd entered.

_ A tier twenty-five Destruction, _ Reiner thought with genuine fright,  _ this is it. Reiner Braun dies a warrior today. _

They could also theoretically escape by following the trench along either of its paths, one each leading opposite directions, but again, they were cornered by three titans that wandered the crag. It was also their responsibility as scouts to kill the massive creature.

Their cave entrance was probably a hundred feet or so from the bottom, and about seventy feet from the cliff sides that constituted their only exit.

The cave wasn't anything special, but had clearly been used by mortals before. Several empty sleeping bags, a few large bottles of high-alcohol-content booze, some dirty pillowcases, a small table, and a few other personal items littered the area. It was large enough to hold eight guardian angels and their eight pegasus, all of whom stood in deep thought and distress as they considered their situation.

"Right!" Came the voice of Captain Hellsing over the sound of the nearby roaring Destruction. "We've taken fifty percent casualties so far! If we're going to get  _ any  _ of our fallen comrades back to Archonia, we're going to need to do something pretty drastic!"

"Sir!" An angel called from the mouth of the cave, "Two more closing in! A tier-sixteen Wrath and a tier-fifteen Deceit from the southern crag!"

_ You're kidding me, _ Reiner thought,  _ we're sitting ducks. _

"Listen up!" Hellsing said, her voice dripping with authority and grave sobriety. "I'd love to divide us up into teams and ask you to take down a titan each, but that's not what's going to get all of us out of here! We've lost eight men at this point, and that is  _ unacceptable _ . So we'll need someone to play decoy. We need someone to go down there, and get the attention of all five titans, luring them to a central spot, hopefully near the mouth of this cave. I think we'll be able to make something in this cave that will help us take them down if they're all close together. Any volunteers?"

Reiner grit his teeth, looking around at the other scouts. None of them are going to volunteer.  _ None of them are going to volunteer, and then my dumb ass is going to do it. Fuck. _

He almost chastised himself for cursing, but decided that the situation was appropriate.

He raised his hand after a few seconds of silence.

Hellsing looked at him. "Are you going to make up for your idiotic blunder last week, Braun?"

He nodded, "Yes, sir. I can be the diversion. Send me."

She nodded curtly. "Right, let's make a quick plan, then."

Fifteen minutes later, Reiner guided his Pegasus, Benjamin, to the edge of the cave. The angelic animal huffed nervously at the sight below them, flapping its wings with deep  _ whoosh whoosh _ sounds.

A hundred feet below, there were five titans. Wrath, Greed, Deceit, Filth, and Brutality. Wrath was a forty-foot black widow spider. Greed was a twenty-foot scorpion with four arms. Deceit was a skull-faced ghoul the size of a truck, carrying a wicked scythe. Filth was a surging pile of purple-brown murk. Brutality was a seething bull with the size to charge through buildings.

Reiner was about to do acrobatics around them. And probably get killed.

Suddenly there was a hand on his arm. He looked down to see Bertholdt looking up at him with a dark expression. "You're coming home, you hear me?"

"Right," he replied, "And then you're getting me a cork-beer."

Bertholdt nodded at the same time that Hellsing called, "Braun, the faster you get on, the more of our comrades make it out of this ravine of death!"

Reiner drew a quick cross across his chest, and then leaned down. "Benjamin, are you ready? We're just going to go for a little ride, alright? Let's go!" He kicked the animal into motion. It flapped its great white wings and galloped out of the cave.

The air was dry; sand gusted about, reminding Reiner to flip his goggles down over his eyes. He leaned forward, encouraging his Pegasus to dive steeply. He guided them into a tight spiral, which brought the ground spinning at him at a breakneck pace.

Wrath noticed him first. It clicked and chirped, scuttling forward from its place on the cliff face. Eight shiny legs gripped the sandstone with such force that huge chunks of the rock broke free, falling the small distance to the ground. Half of the creature's legs crawled on the wall, the other half on the ground. All eight eyes glistened in anticipation.

_ If that creature gets me, my body will not be returning to Archonia, he noted, but one down. Four to go. _

He steered in the direction that he'd noticed Filth spill off to. He sped close enough to the ground that Benjamin galloped on the ground in places, leaping off boulders and gliding away from Wrath.

Filth shlooped along in a sticky mass, oozing between boulders and until it became aware of the Angel descending upon it. Quickly, it took the form of a thick wall that reached across the thin chasm and high into the air, attempting to knock the winged horse out of the air.

Benjamin dodged easily, doing a clean barrel roll over the top of the wall without Reiner's prompting. The wall of sludge dissolved quickly, taking the shape of its own twenty-foot pegasus with surging red eyes and teeth like a needles, which took off after them, leaping into the air sloppily.

_ Two down, three to go. _

He glanced back. Filth and Wrath were nearer than he'd ever be comfortable with. Wrath would be on top of him in a moment if he didn't ascend, so he leaned backward, signaling to Benjamin to climb higher.

His steed responded seamlessly, as if it knew all along that he'd ask it to fly higher. Once they were high enough, he kicked them into a tight U-turn, which sent them within inches of Filth's messy grasp. They shot past it, and Reiner eyed Greed scuttling on the ground farther below, unable to climb the walls that Wrath had begun doing.

_ Three down. _

Brutality had cantered over to where the rest of the Guardian Angels were hidden, far above. Its fiery red eyes looked ready to burst with its rage. As Reiner approached, the colossal bull backed up several paces before charging the crag and  _ smashing  _ its horns into the cliff face, causing a massive shudder to rumble up the wall. Several boulders were knocked free, falling through the air to explode in dusty fragments upon collision with the ground.

But when Reiner approached, the monster turned to eye him with absolute hatred. It stomped with an incredible huff of hot air, and charged him.

The air was a thunder of noise at this point, and it was difficult to focus. If he didn't plan right, he and Benjamin  _ both  _ would get crushed to death - like three other comrades already had.

With Wrath, Filth, and Greed closing in behind, Reiner kicked Benjamin into a steep dive to -

_ Swish _

Reiner almost missed the sight of the massive ghoul's scythe slash Benjamin's head clean off, and suddenly, he was holding reins that were attached to nothing.

_ "Benjamin!!"  _ He screamed in shock and rage as the noble creature's head fell away.

The body beneath him fell into a violent paroxysm, and Reiner was thrown off.

Right in front of Brutality.

By some sort of miracle, he wasn't killed- yet. Brutality's charge didn't account for Deceit's intervention, and its charging knees missed him by only a few feet, and he felt the air churn as the beast charged over the top of him. Each time a hoof crashed to the stone nearby, it sounded like thunder, and the noise echoed quickly up the thin chasm. 

He crashed into the ground with enough force to bounce and skid for a fair distance before he came to a halt, which dragged his goggles down around his neck, and forced dirt into his mouth.

Fortunately, being an angel had some benefits, and being able to withstand impacts such as the one he'd taken without extreme harm was one of them. He groaned and climbed to his feet, fixing his goggles and spitting dirt out of his mouth.

Benjamin's body came to a sickening crash nearby, landing awkwardly on its severed neck and spattering blood on the uneven, sandy stone.

He looked up and around at the scene about him with a grimace.

Far far above, the sky was blue and brown from the sand that continued to gust about. Destruction wasn't visible.

A little lower, the other seven Angels were bursting out of the mouth of the cave on their respective pegasus. They, like he, didn't have much room across the ravine, and all seven quickly fell into a steep spiral to avoid colliding with the opposite wall.

Lower still, Wrath was descending upon him rapidly from almost directly above. All eight legs scurried at him with terrifying speed, and he brought his crossbow from behind his back- miraculously still with him despite the crash.

Finally, Deceit, Greed, Filth and Brutality were on the floor of the ravine, all rushing him from one direction. Claws and hooves and feet and sludge, each belonging to a creature more than thrice his size, all bent on destroying him.

And he had a crossbow.

He nocked an explosive arrow, gritting his teeth.

Greed came first, mandibles chittering with excitement at the prospect of killing yet another Guardian Angel. Four massive pincer claws snapped with enough force to snip cars in half.

Reiner knelt, raising the crossbow to aim the shot directly into the monster's maw.

_ This should blow him to kingdom come, _ he thought, and pulled the trigger.

The arrow only had to fly fifteen feet or so before lodging deep in the colossus scorpion's throat. It hardly noticed the small wooden stick, and immediately swung low with its stinger.

The enormous barb ripped through Reiner's torso with a sensation he could only compare to molten lava. The sharp tip exploded out of his back, sending his golden blood spattering across the rock behind him as he gasped in pain. He felt every inch of the bristly shell inside him.

_ Get my body, Bertholdt. _

His crossbow dropped to the ground with a clatter.

Bertholdt watched with fury as four massive claws gripped on Reiner's arms and legs, ripping him into pieces with minimal effort. The scene was one from a horror film.

_ "Reiner, no!" _ He screamed, drawing his broadsword from across his back. "You  _ promised!" _

The other demons crowded the scorpion in an instant, wanting in on the kill, creating a blood orgy out of Reiner's remains.

Suddenly, the scorpion exploded, flame and gore bursting from the mouth outward, sending all four claws in different directions.

Captain Hellsing screamed orders. "It's too late for Braun! Light 'em up!"

All seven Angels carried makeshift Molotov cocktails, created from the booze and the pillowcases in the cave. Bertholdt gripped his with rage.

_ If I throw this, I seal Reiner's fate. _

He made a split-second decision.

Rather than throwing, he leaned forward, kicking Aquarius into a steep dive, directed straight at the confused pile of titans. He heard Captain Hellsing scream in disapproval, but he simply leaned outward as he approached Deceit. His broadsword caught the creature from behind, shearing it in half as it approached Reiner's body.

Reiner was in three pieces. Bertholdt only needed the largest one to salvage his immortality.

Wrath's front legs had been blown to shreds by the blast of the explosive arrow, and Filth had only just begun regrouping itself. Bertholdt released his broadsword, letting it drop to the earth, and he heaved Aquarius into a barrel-roll as he flew over the Reiner's still-attached head and torso, which maintained a single arm. He grabbed the arm as he heard the first crash of glass breaking.

Flames suddenly surrounded him as he dodged one of Brutality's down-swinging horns. Wrath's squeals became the noisiest thing as Bertholdt threw his own Molotov straight into Filth's surging and regenerating pile of sludge. It couldn't scream, but it writhed in agony as flames enveloped it.

Bertholdt pulled Reiner's head and chest onto his saddle as Aquarius brought them higher. Reiner was dead, but because Bertholdt had recovered at least his upper half, he would be able to recover. It only meant that he wouldn't be getting on earth anytime soon.

He heaved a sigh of relief, despite holding his friend's top half in his lap. Reiner would live. Could he ask for more?

He looked down the ravine, where flames had engulfed the scene. All of the titans were slowly collapsing, including Brutality, who had taken a Molotov right between the eyes, it seemed.

The other seven angels immediately spread out, scouring the trench for the bodies of the other eight who had died earlier in the skirmish, but Bertholdt took his friend's body back to the cave where they'd hidden earlier. As he ascended, he grit his teeth.

_ We still have to take care of Destruction, _ He realized _. How the hell are we going to bring down a tier-twenty-five predator class Destruction with seven angels? It's a dragon, it's fireproof, so no more Molotovs. _

He approached the cave and prepared to alight within, when with a mighty roar, Destruction's positively  _ massive  _ clawed feet came crashing down on the lip of the ravine above him. They hooked around the cliff edge, and he could see almost the entirety of the reptilian monster above him spread its wings, looking at something Bertholdt couldn't see. It screeched again, bearing its mighty teeth.

Suddenly, a rocket flew into the monster's mouth, and the dragon's head exploded into several fiery chunks. Smoking bits of skull and meat and brains sprayed into the sandy air like gory fireworks.

Three more rockets swooped in, detonating viciously against the defeated monster's chest and wings, sending it stumbling backwards. It fell back onto the cliff, shaking the entire ravine.

_ What in Heaven? _ Bertholdt thought with wonder. And hope.

He guided Aquarius to the cliff's edge, peeking above it before allowing the pegasus to flap to the safety of the desert expanse.

On the side where the dying dragon was not, stood Erwin Smith's personal weaponized squad of experts. The man himself, Full Commander of the Scouting Legion Erwin Smith, guided his legendary black pegasus over to where Bertholdt had landed. His face was grim and dark.

"I hope you're not the only one left," he said.

An hour later, eight of the nine bodies had been recovered.

The scouts scoured the thin chasm, moving boulders and cutting through the remains of dead titans, which were decomposing more and more by the minute.

"I can't find Franz!" Hannah screamed through her tears, "He's got to be around here somewhere!" She knelt on the ground in a still-simmering pile of Filth's remains, her hands covered in the demon's remains.

Captain Hellsing bit her lip as she approached the desperate girl from behind. "Hannah, none of us saw him go down. It could have been Filth  _ or  _ Wrath. If it was... then you know as well as I do that there's nothing we can do."

The girl whirled around, her tear-stricken face an array of anguish and agony. "No, no  _ please _ ," her voice broke, "We still haven't checked Brutality, I can't- I won't-"

Commander Smith waved Captain Hellsing away as he put his hand on Hannah's shoulder. He knelt down to her level and looked at her face.

"Miss Diamant, I'm sorry for your loss. But we have been in Titan territory for well over an hour now, and you've been here more than eight. It's time for us to fall back. I'll have to make that an order."

She choked, and put her face into her filthy hands, smearing the odorous grime onto her cheeks and forehead. She nodded, but as the Commander stood, she wailed loudly enough that he paused, locking his jaw.

_ This is a man that can throw away the life of one for the lives of many, _ Bertholdt thought as the group walked away from where Hannah wept to the place where the Pegasus stood patiently.

"Sir, did you come specifically to rescue us?" Captain Hellsing asked.

The man nodded. "We caught wind of that Destruction and noted that it was in the same area you'd taken your squad. We put two-and-two together."

They loaded up the Pegasus in awkward, painful silence, save for Hannah's noise until Captain Hellsing spoke again.

"Thank you for coming, sir. I don't know how many of us would have made it out if you hadn't arrived."

He nodded, "Less than there are now. Which is why we came. We'll need every Angel we can get in the coming days."

"Sir?" She responded, "Why's that? We're not having another expedition, are we?"

"Not technically," he replied, and paused as he folded the body of one of Bertholdt's comrades onto a stretcher below a Pegasus. "But there have been confirmations of three Behemoths about three or four hours north of here. In a ravine near a town called Suluk."

Every mouth in the vicinity dropped open.

_ "Three?!"  _ Came Hellsing's reply.

Smith nodded, fastening a strap over the body. "We've called upon the Garrison and the Military police. They've both agreed to only send their troops with the highest consistent kill rates to assist to reign in the least amount of casualties."

"What Behemoths?" Clark spoke up.

"One Devastation, one Bloodlust, and a Plague. Apparently two of them break the fortieth tier."

Bertholdt could feel his insides squirm. With titans  _ that  _ big, he could count on bidding farewell to more Angels. Who would they be? Who would die in the upcoming assault?

_ They've both agreed to only send their troops with the highest consistent kill rates... _

What was Annie's kill rate, again?

He shook his head out of the worrying he was going to be doing for her, and loaded Reiner's body into a stretcher.

\-------------

Annie crouched in the bushes that lined the Arlert house. She'd decided to allow Armin to leave with his dad so as to leave the home unprotected from Despair, whihc might give the demon an opportunity to sneak back inside.

She remained absolutely still, and her spear lay on the ground in front of her. From outside the bush, no one would be able to see her, mortal or immortal. Not that mortals could see her regardless, but it was still comforting to know that she was completely hidden.

She remained that way in the chilly midmorning light for over two hours, waiting for Armin and Fred to return.

He'd wanted to see her again. Why had he wanted to see her again? She kept remembering when he'd called her beautiful, but that had been like, four days ago. Did he still think that? He'd only seen her once, how could he think she was beautiful if he had only had a tiny, tiny look at her?

_ I could show him myself again, _ she thought,  _ then he could actually decide. _

The process for showing oneself to a mortal was actually fairly simple. Sometimes there were glitches, as had happened earlier in the week when Armin had a glance at her, but all she had to do to allow him to see her again was to touch his skin and will it to happen.

Did she want it to happen? It was a serious breach of GA protocol, but the area wasn't monitored and she

Deep inside, she knew she just wanted to hear him call her beautiful again, because the way he said it had had her heart doing somersaults and her mind wandering into fantastic places- places that would never exist, obviously, at least not until the boy died.

_ Okay, I might have a crush on Armin, _ she mulled,  _ but it's harmless, right? He's a mortal, what's going to happen? _

She continued her crouch, scanning her surroundings for anything remotely demonic. There wasn't much, for multiple reasons. Most demons hid out underground or in the sewers during the morning-time, since morning sun had a special way of slowing them down. Another factor was that this was Shiganshina, and there weren't actually that many demons in the first place. Probably minor ones in a few of the houses in the neighbourhood, and then the ones at the high school that in all reality were quite harmless; they only spread minor negativity like drama or pride, so long as the demons themselves stayed low-tier.

Her mind wandered back to Armin.

\-----------

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OHHH KAY! It's time for another chapter post. I love this so much! We're halfway done with this story!  
> I thought I'd clarify really quick what my chapter notes are. Periodically, as I write, I think of something that I want to tell the reader. So I write it at the bottom of my chapter, under my notes. Then, when I post, I pop these notes right into the archive notes, and leave it at that. They go in the same order as I write, so it's just scene by scene.  
> Here are the notes: 
> 
> I had to do maths for the mother freaking Sanderson/hitch scene. I hate maths. So please, murder me, please. Seriously *Hands you a knife* here's my heart *lowers shirt collar* stab me right here, please. *points at heart*  
> Okay, if you're wondering what my excuse is for being late with THIS update, it's because the FUCKING Levi-Hanji scene; after I finished the first draft, I got fisted up to the elbow by the fact that I somehow FORGOT THAT MIKASA LIVES WITH FUCKIN LEVI. ... !!!!!!!!!! So I had to blow two of my writing periods fixing that stupid thing, so I hope you APPRECIATE IT ugh  
> I also had to spend a writing period clarifying Ackerman lore and world mechanics in my notes. That was also tough.  
> This chapter is tough, and it's gonna be the shortest one in a few weeks, dammit.  
> I'm laying in bed, trying to plan out what the hell Armin's going to say to Hanji. Like, I know how the scene ends, and I know what needs to be said, but what the hell? How is it going to get to that point? Life as a writer is strange.  
> This chapter was almost the chapter to break and orphan this fic lol.  
> Did you notice that Armin's dad is a team leader, which is the same title Hitch and other leaders in the GA have? That's because I think Armin's dad is an angel c: (Not literally though, he's mortal lol)  
> I hate Cheetos.  
> GHAHAHHHHHHH *begins laughing painfully and maniacally* guys this chapter is so hard omg I can't even tell you. Literally, I have a scene and half left to write, and it is a STRUGGLE. I have FETCHING WRITERS' BLOCK. Hanji is hard, continuity is hard, this is all so damn hard. My solace is that we have some Annie/Armin fluff to come, and we also have a flipping BADASS battle scene coming up. So pray for FMG and we'll push through this!  
> I know there were readers out there hoping for some Bertholdt/Reiner, but dudes. I ain't about that.  
> This was a chapter to foreshadow that characters can die. Yeah, the dead characters were canon, but will the next ones be? We'll see, I guess.  
> (Pretty sure that I made it clear that Reiner will be coming back, since his body was recovered.)
> 
> ALRIGHT-O, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! My only concern is that there might be some continuity errors, and I am 99.7% positive I cleared all of them up, but if you notice something, comment! I love you all a lot lot lot, so please give some feedback, and I will see you soon! :D
> 
> EDIT: You've probably noticed that I've changed the tags on the story a little bit. I took out some of the tags about fluff, because obviously that's not a massive part of the story, and I didn't want to be false-advertising anything. That said, once the story progresses a little more and we GET some fluff (omg she's gonna show herself to Armin), then the tags might return. You probably don't care that much, but I thought I'd let you know.


	7. Desire. Divinity. Demise.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A bunch of secrets are spilled. Just read it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning list: a bunch of swearing, mostly levi; flufffy goodness; levi almost makes an inappropriate joke; some inferred references to sexual content; more violence;

Armin raised an eyebrow when his dad drove past his school.

"I'm not going back to class?" He asked.

"I thought we'd visit Mom first," the man replied. His eyes had a twinkle in them that could write volumes. There were small bags under them that denoted his lack of sleep. Walking in on your son in the middle of a self-harm session/demonic conversation would be enough to make any parent lose sleep, at the least.

_ I'm a pretty awful son, _ Armin noted. He allowed himself to dwell on it for a few minutes as he looked out the window, watching the cemetery appear from around a bend.

They parked the car at the base of the small hill that constituted the greater portion of the property. Several trees stood watch on the hill, and because they mostly didn't have their leaves anymore, they looked like great skeletal guardians, defending the gravestones with their sheer mass and bare, club-like branches. When the wind blew through them, they shook and twisted slightly, as if having invisible combat with transparent malefactors.

The sound of the car doors slamming may have been the first noise to disturb the dead all day. There were no other cars in the lot, nor were there people on the hill.

They climbed it in silence, side by side. His father seemed unwilling to leave him with much more than a few feet of space. Even when he'd walked out of Doctor Zoe's office, his dad had only stood with a smile, thanked the woman, and walked out at his son's side.

The frost from earlier in the day had long since melted by the time they were walking among the tombstones. The yellowing grass was more rigid with the chilly change in seasons, and they could feel the tough stalks beneath their shoes.

It wasn't difficult to appreciate the headstones that adorned the hillside. Some of them were simple rounded rectangular stone with the name engraved on the face. Others were crosses on a pedestal that had the name of the person who resided beneath.

Armin's favorite were the angels. They always had been. He looked for the most beautiful one on the hill. He spotted it near the top and headed towards it, his father trailing slightly behind.

When he arrived at the headstone, he sighed gratefully. The angel that augmented the stone was perhaps four feet tall, standing on a block of quartz that held the individual's name printed in gold lettering on it. The angel itself was a woman with loose robes that pooled around her feet somewhat. She clasped her hands together and looked to the sky adjacent the hill. Her hair was free and flowing.

But his favorite part of the angel were her wings. They weren't clasped or closed like many of the other nearby angels, but broad and open, ready to take flight. They were beautiful eagle's wings with large, fluffy white feathers.

_ It had been raining. Heavily. _

He leaned forward, touching the angel's face. It wasn't modeled after any specific person, but it was beautiful nonetheless. He felt his thoughts wander as his father's footsteps approached him and the grave from behind.

_ Dad had had a late night at work. _

He felt the first tears well up as he knelt at his dear mother's angelic gravestone, feeling the tough grass beneath him. He traced her name with his finger, allowing his body to slump, his lips to purse, and his eyes to weep.

_ She'd complained about a headache. I told her that I'd get myself to bed, so she went up early. _

He felt his dad's hand on his back as sobs began to wrack through him. Why hadn't he done something? Why hadn't he  _ done  _ something?

_ I stayed awake until Dad got home. It was almost eleven thirty. We talked for almost half an hour after I told him mom had already gone to bed hours ago. _

God, he needed her. He needed her so badly. He never thought about how fucking  _ hard  _ it was without her. If he did, then he'd collapse. But here he was, thinking about it. How the hell was he going to live? The woman who raised him was gone,  _ fucking gone _ , and he was getting crushed by how  _ hard  _ it all was.

_ It wasn't a minute after saying goodnight to dad that I heard him scream for help. _

She'd spent his whole life taking care of him, doing his laundry, cleaning his face, changing his diaper, telling him historical stories, tickling him before bed, helping him with homework, making him breakfast, lunch, and dinner, singing eighties rock, picking him up from school,  _ everything _ . She'd been his foundation, the thing that kept him sane, the person he chatted with after school, his best friend, his fucking  _ Mom _ .

_ I rushed in to see him kneeling over her. She hadn't even made it to the bed. She'd collapsed just past the doorway, and she'd been dead for hours. _

He soaked her grave with his tears. It wasn't the first time, nor would it be the last.

_ A brain aneurysm. No one saw it coming. She went from perfectly healthy to dead in a few hours. Nothing I could have done. Nothing anyone could have done. _

He'd almost killed himself that night. The only thing that had stopped him was the thought of his father losing both his wife and son in so short a time.

Suddenly, his father's hand on his back shook him from his thoughts. He choked a little before lifting his forehead from the stone at the angel's feet. He turned to see his father kneeling beside him, also with tears in his eyes.

"Were you trying to talk to her?" He asked.

Armin clenched his teeth and shook his head slightly. What now? Tell his dad about Annie? This was bound to come eventually; of course his dad would want to know what he was doing with the Ouija board.

"Dad, I... I don't-"

"I get it," the man said, "I've been working so damn much, I'm sorry, I  _ knew  _ this would happen, but the promotion was so good, and I-"

"Dad, wait," Armin cut him off, "Do you think this is your fault?"

"Of course it's my fault, I've been hiding at work ever since she died, I haven't been able to help you through any of this!" He exclaimed, "What kind of father am I?"

"No," Armin replied, "No, Dad, never— This could never be your fault; I just, I haven't reached out to anyone, I've just hidden from my friends, I've tried to bury everything in my schoolwork, but none of it  _ works  _ because I'm... I'm..."

He wanted to explain. He wished he could explain it all. There was so  _ much _ .

_ But he deserves to know. _

"Dad, I'm going through hell," he leaned on his mother's headstone for support, "I... I found some things out recently."

"Like what?"

"I... heard something in my room a few days ago. They day when the house felt good and right. I figured out how to talk to it, and found that she's a guardian angel. I also found out that the reason I'm so depressed is that there's been a demon haunting me for years. Last night, when you walked in, the angel had just chased the demon out, and I was talking to her. I have the notebook where I wrote down her messages. I can show it to you. But I need to talk to her again."

The patriarch leaned back, sniffling. He wiped a tear from his cheek and looked at a nearby bare tree.

"Okay," he said.

"Okay?" Armin furrowed his brow despite himself. "Okay what?"

"I believe you. And I'll give you the board back, but on a few conditions."

Armin couldn't speak.  _ That's it? "I believe you."?? No questions? What's going on? _

"Whenever you're going to use it, I want you to tell me. And the moment you don't feel a hundred percent right about it, you put it away. And we're going to go home and get rid of all your razors. And you let me take you out to lunch."

Armin felt a rush of something for his father that he hadn't felt this intensely for a long time. It was a good feeling, rooted in gratitude and nourished by attention. It was love. True, father-son love that was healthy and good.

He could barely get the words out. "Thank you dad, God, thank you."

They sat at the headstone for a little longer before helping each other to their feet and walking back to the car, feeling lighter.

\--------

Annie watched Eren and Mikasa arrived, knocked on Armin's door, and left again.

She knelt in the bushes completely still, waiting for a demon that was turning out to be as crafty as it was evil. In no other situation in her time as a Guardian Angel had she ever been out-waited by a demon. Was it waiting for her to leave? Was it sitting equally still, knowing full well that she had a limited time before she would be worn down by being on earth? How long had she been here already? Almost twenty hours?

She gave a mental grunt, remembering her conversation with Sanderson. What had he said? Something about how she should be perfectly capable of taking down a mid-tier Despair by herself in less than some specified amount of time, and he was right; why hadn't she killed it yet?

_ Could I be more proactive about this? Probably, _ she decided. Perhaps she could have actively hunted down the monster days ago, but then she wouldn't have met Armin. Even in her first encounter, she'd been distracted by how interesting he was. He was so incisive and analytical and perceptive. Anyone in their right mind would have wanted to sit and watch him, right?

She was shaken out of her thoughts as the family car, a blue Toyota Prius, rolled into the nearby driveway. She felt a sudden relief at seeing them back; they'd been gone almost five hours. She assumed they'd gone to see a therapist of some sort, and she'd wanted to go, but had resolutely told herself that she had a job to do, and that was to deal with Despair.

Father and son stepped out of the car in the garage and entered the house. She stayed in the bushes for a few minutes more, vacillating between entering the house or remaining hidden.

Eventually, she stood up, stretching her knees and back before following them inside.

Once there, she raised an eyebrow upon finding an empty kitchen and adjacent living area. The plush couches and other furniture was as they left it this morning, and the house was still enough for her to wonder if they'd come in at all.

But she quickly heard noises from the stairway and found them together in Armin's room.

Armin was lifting his queen-sized mattress, and his dad was sweeping several rectangular metal objects - razors, she figured- into a garbage can.

The scene was awkward for a moment until Fredrich slowed to a stop. Both Armin and his dad sighed quietly, peacefully.

"She's here," Armin said quietly, and Annie was again impressed at his incredible talent at discerning her arrival.

"Is this what it feels like when she's around?" Fredrich replied.

The boy nodded, looking around and stopping his eyes near the door, about a foot to Annie's left.

Annie's eyes widened. He'd told his dad about her? That was unexpected. For some reason, she'd assumed that he'd keep more secrets from him.

But of course, now that she addressed that line of thinking, she could see the faults in it. Armin wasn't sneaky or a secret keeper. Even when they'd been interrupted by his dad, he hadn't tried to hide anything, but had simply deflated and accepted the turn of events.

So it wasn't much of a stretch to tell all about his misnomered depression and Annie, who'd been the informant of such.

"Does she want to talk to you?" The man asked hesitantly.

Armin paused, lowering the mattress before addressing her, "Do you?"

She bit her lip before shrugging and bashing the spear heavily into the ground. Perhaps if she thumped loudly enough, Fred would hear as well, and it wouldn't be as hard for him to believe all the things Armin was claiming.

The taller man gasped, but said nothing. Instead, he looked around the room with slightly widened eyes.

"She said yes," Armin said quietly.

"I think I might have heard," came the reply. "A  _ very  _ faint noise, but a noise. One means yes?"

"Yeah," Armin said and sat on his bed. "Can I have that board back?"

He tipped his head back and forth before letting out a weak, "I guess so. I can give you guys some privacy if you want it, but I'm leaving the door open, okay?"

Armin sighed in relief, "Thanks dad. You're... thanks."

He smiled at his son. "Remember what you promised."

"Right. I will."

He stood, dusted his legs off, and carried the trash can out of the bedroom, leaving the door open as promised.

And they were alone.

"I'm sorry," he blurted. "For... you know. Hurting myself."

_ Oh, Armin, _ she sighed,  _ You are amazing. Just hold on, I'll take care of you. _

She blushed a little at her own thoughts, but the boy in front of her was too much. In the flurry of activity yesterday, she hadn't had the opportunity to address his multiple injures and abrasions, but now she viewed his swollen jaw and split lip and slightly blackened eye with such a pang in her heart that it almost made her lose composure. She wanted to hold him and erase all his problems, to make him forget any pain he’d ever felt, and to make him hers forever. 

But she couldn’t. All she could do was tell him what was important before she had to kill Despair and leave Shiganshina forever. 

He bit his lip, brushed a strand of extra-long sunshine-colored hair out of his face, and sat on his bed.

She thumped her spear once, and he smiled warmly in response.

Suddenly, Fred was back, handing Armin the Ouija board tentatively. They exchanged a few short words, and then the man paused.

"Can I watch her respond once?" He asked.

Annie thumped her spear once in approval. The less apprehensive he was about her, the better.

"Sure," Armin replied. He pulled the triangle out of its slot, and took a deep breath, placing it on the board on his bed. He leaned over to his desk, where he'd left the notebook full of her messages to him, grabbing it and a pen.

Annie took the triangle before anyone could ask a question. The moment it moved, Fred gasped.

"Christ," he muttered as she began spelling. Armin began writing.

_ Hello Fred. Sabrina misses you. She is beautiful and blonde. She is about five foot five. And you proposed to her at the border between Idaho and Utah, not at Yellowstone, like you told everyone. She told me. _

Hopefully, by presenting facts that only Sabrina could have told her, she could gain Fred's trust and win a few points in his book for a reason she could call upon later. She let go of the triangle after spelling the last word.

"Christ," he repeated, placing a hand over his chin.

"You didn't propose to mom at Yellowstone?" Armin asked.

He shook his head, "She promised to keep it a secret. We didn't go to Yellowstone that weekend, we went to a comic-con instead. You didn't tell Annie that?"

"No, I didn’t even know that. I haven't actually gotten to talk to her very much, to be honest," the boy said.

"Wow," he said, shaking his head, "Well, I'm sure you two have some things to talk about, I'll leave you alone."

With that, he walked out, visibly entranced in thought.

Annie began spelling again.

_ Armin, I want to show myself to you. _

Armin scribbled the message, and then looked at it in shock.

"Oh my God," he muttered, "Really? You can do that?"

Cheeks somewhat pink, she pursed her lips and spelled.  _ Get ready. _

She stood and sat on his other side, looking at his face from the side. He was looking around the room expectantly.

With a shudder of anticipation, she placed her hand on his, and  _ willed  _ him to see her.

\---------- 

First, he felt her touch; warm, soft, and positively angelic on his hand. She wrapped her hand around his, and his skin prickled comfortably where her immortal skin caressed him.

And suddenly, she appeared, and the first thing he noticed was her eyes. Deep as the sea, and hiding twice as many secrets. They were a navy blue that resembled thin ice over deep, mysterious waters. She had stunning golden hair that framed her face and mostly covered her right eye. It was done back in a tight bun, and a few strands stuck up in the air.

But the best thing he saw was her breathtaking smile. It was small, sweet, and barely showed any teeth, but it was bright, brilliant, and beautiful.

He realized after a moment of staring that he'd forgotten to breathe. He quickly did so, but the air caught in his throat; the girl before him was so amazingly pretty that he wasn't sure he'd ever need to breathe again.

"Wow..." he whispered. "You... are ... a showstopper."

She immediately burst into silent laughter, which he immediately regretted that he could not hear, because it was the stars: it was the light that broke through the darkness that had had been threatening to engulf him recently, and he couldn’t even  _ hear _ it.

She shook her head, and reached for the notebook and pen by his side. He handed it to her, and she set it on the bed so she could write and still hold his hand at the same time.

_ Why are you so nice? _ she wrote, and looked up at him with a glimmer in her eyes.

He felt his face redden upon realization of what he'd said, but to be honest, he was feeling great; she was making him smile like he hadn't in weeks. He couldn't stop looking at her amazing face, her hands, everything. He finally got to look her up and down and really, truly take her in.

She was wearing some sort of uniform. It consisted of a brown jacket under a white hoodie, long tan pants, and knee-high leather boots. She looked like a real badass, if he was honest with himself.

In fact, now that he could see her, he could see the spear resting against her thigh. It was about seven feet long, marked with golden filigree patterns that laced along the length of the whole shaft. It was tipped with a vicious looking conical point, as well as a single barb, like a whaler's harpoon.

"I'm not that nice," he said, still entranced by the fact that there was an  _ angel  _ sitting in his  _ room _ . And she was  _ gorgeous _ ! "I'm just saying. You're stunning. Thank you for- er, this." He felt his cheeks heat up a little more.

It was her turn to blush, and she shrugged. She lifted her hand, and Armin immediately caught it before it could separate from his. He looked her in the eye, where he saw surprise. He released her quickly, which caused her to disappear from his sight. He was the only visible person in his room.

"Sorry," he said to the invisible Annie, embarrassed. "I just- I think you're- I don't want you to go."

There was a pause, and then he felt her fingers brush his cheek. She quickly reappeared to his eyes, and he sighed in relief. She wasn't leaving. She placed her other hand on his knee, and then began writing in the notebook again.

_ Okay, _ she wrote,  _ then I'll stay _ .

He smiled wide, and moved to touch her. She tensed, but eased after his fingers hovered above her cheek for a moment.  _ It's only fair, _ he reasoned.

As the back of his mind was intrigued by the physics and mechanics of her tangible body being conditional upon first contact, the forefront of it was caught up in how  _ wonderful  _ she felt under his fingertips. She was warm and soft, and she watched him with big, questioning eyes.

She lifted the pen again.

_ What are you doing to me? _

He furrowed his brow. "I'm touching your face. You touched mine first, it's only fair."

She shook her head and pursed her lips. With a twinkle in her eye, she began another note.

_ That's not what I meant _ .

\---------

"Do you believe in Heaven, Annie?"

She leaned against the brick of the school with as much placid disinterest as could be housed in a human body and looked at Bertholdt.

"Worried about this weekend?" She replied dryly. "Don't go if you're worried."

Reiner scoffed from his spot on the ground. "Bert's got nothing to worry about. He can clobber anybody. He could fight a wall and win."

"A little," Bertholdt replied shyly, "but that's not why I asked. Do you believe in Heaven? A place where people can be happy after they die?"

She looked to the ground, inspecting the grass. "I'll believe it when I see it."

\---------

She loved his touch. It was electrifying; every time his skin brushed hers, it sent a shiver of pleasure up her spine. His fingertips explored her face and hands absently as they chattered away, talking about everything from school to his favorite books to his mom to Heaven to Demons.

"How could there be  _ no sky?!" _ He asked, intrigued.

She shrugged and wrote, _ I'm a fighter, not a scientist. Someone else could explain it. Not me. _

"That's amazing. Are the stars the same as what we have here?!" He asked excitedly.

She shrugged again and with a laugh, wrote,  _ Seriously, I don't know! I'm dumb as a rock here! _

He scoffed. "Well, I doubt that. I wouldn't know, obviously, but you're not someone who strikes me as dumb."

_ Okay, fine,  _ she responded, _ but I know nothing about the science of Heaven's lack of sky. _

"Fair enough," he laughed. "Okay, then what about the buildings? The architecture? What's it like?"

She smiled, and started drawing a building, absently aware that her time here was ticking by quickly. And she still hadn't killed Despair.

\---------

"Is tonight a report night?" Hanji asked between slurps of white pasta.

Levi glanced at the calendar, noting the full moon, and then at Mikasa's innocent chewing. He looked back at Hanji and narrowed his eyes. "Yeah, I start at eleven."

"Mind if I stay the night anyway?" Hanji asked.

Levi watched as Mikasa paused subtly in recognition of Hanji's question. He felt his cheeks twitch ever-so-slightly. "Sure. On the damn couch."

She looked at him with playful shock. "What!? Why there?!"

Levi looked at Mikasa, who had looked up to watch their banter. "Tell her," he said.

She shrugged and took another bite. "Premarital sex increases the risk of STDs, for one."

Levi kept a straight face and nodded seriously. "Who knows what you shove up your-"

"Now hold on!" Hanji interrupted, "We've been dating for  _ years!" _

Levi shrugged. "Mik's in charge. She doesn't want me catching your syphilis; she needs a guardian for a few more years, anyway."

Hanji looked back and forth between the Ackermans with incredulity as they ate pasta in tandem.

"Fine, I'll take the couch," she said simply.

\---------

"Annie, how did you die?" Armin asked. They lay together on his bed, above the covers.

She left her hand on his arm, still appreciating the softness of the pillow under her head. She'd maintained touch with him for almost two hours now, and she was starting to admit to herself how she really felt. She had a helpless crush on a mortal. Every time she readdressed the fact that she was laying on his bed, holding his hand, and chatting with him about almost nothing at all, her heart did a flip and splashed warmth to the the tips of her toes. 

She took a deep breath and blinked a few times before scooping up the notebook and tossing a now-bare foot onto his hand to maintain contact.

_ I tried to save my friends from a fire. _

Armin read the short scrawl with intrigue and looked at her. "You sacrificed yourself to save them?"

She bit her lip, loving the expression on his face. It was of wonder and awe. She bit her lip with compunction before determining to tell the truth.

_ No,  _ she wrote,  _ they died. We all did. _

As he stared at her, his face shifted from wonder to... sorrow. "How long ago was that?"

She furrowed her brow before replying.

_ 40 years? Something like that. _

He opened his mouth to reply, but there came a sudden voice from the main floor.

"Armin? Is everything going okay up there?"

He sat up quickly to reply. "Yeah! Amazing!"

Fredrich took a moment to reply, but the worry was almost palpable in his tone. "Okay... it's been almost three hours. Are you almost done?"

Annie smiled at the man's determination and wrote Armin another note.  _ Go talk to your dad. He needs help, too. I need to go hunt, anyway. _

He read the note and shrugged. "Yeah, okay. You'll come back, though, right?"

She bit her lip as her heart raced a little, but she was feeling girly and flirty and wanted to say something daring. So she took the pen and wrote,  _ For you? Always. _

His face turned a light shade of red as he grinned ear to ear. "Wow... wow! Uh.. okay! See you later!"

She nodded, unaware of the beaming smile on her face, partially biting her lower lip. It was the biggest smile she's given anyone in years and years. She was  _ smitten _ .

She felt like she'd discovered some sort of new territory. She'd had a few crushes before, so she thought, but had never bothered to make anything come out of them. So it was though she'd been sailing the ocean, not realizing she was looking for paradise until she found her ship beached on it. She was the captain who was discovering that everything she wanted was right here, on this newly discovered island.

_ He's paradise _ , she thought with a smile as he pulled away from her and called down to his dad.  _ All I need. _

He looked wistfully at her now-invisible form and retreated from his room, returning to his father's protective presence on the main floor.

Slowly, she came off her high and looked out the window regretfully. It was dark now; her hunt for Despair would be more difficult because of the lack of light, as the demon would probably be on the move.

Where could it be? It must be hiding somewhere; all smart demons do. Are there any forests nearby? Large entrances to the sewers? If she left now, she might have time to dig through the sewers and then a forest before sunrise.

She sighed contentedly and sat up from her comfy position on Armin's bed, grabbing her spear and moving to leave the house.

As she did so, she was met by the predatory anticipation that heightened her senses. She distinctly felt her spear become more familiar in her hand. The darkness became easier to pierce. And as she closed the front door behind her, she recognised a lightness in her footsteps that had never accompanied her hunts before.

_ I think I’m in love,  _ she realised. 

\--------

"What I'm saying," Levi said into his pagelink, "is that unless I intervene, that asshole isn't going to make it to Heaven in the first place."

He was met with silence on the other side as the blond man undoubtedly stroked his chin and wiggled his menacingly large eyebrows.

"Fine," came Smith's reply, "Do what you must. Archon knows we need as many competent GA's as we can get, even if they aren't exactly saints. How's Mikasa doing?"

Levi shrugged and leaned back, looking at the corner of his office at home. "She left after dinner, off trying to see how long Jaeger's tongue is."

"That's not what I meant."

"I know. She's fine. Still completely unaware of her divine birthright, but she'll figure it out. Every Ackerman does."

"And she'll make it to Heaven?"

Levi scoffed. "Of course. She's the same as her parents. They made it to Heaven alright."

He was met with another thought-filled silence, during which he scratched his crotch and glanced at a frame containing a selfie taken by Hanji of he and her on a picnic blanket with a younger Mikasa.

"Okay. Last update, Levi. I have a couple pieces of startling news concerning Demons."

"And what's that?" The history teacher replied dryly.

"The first is that we received a report last week of three Behemoths in Syria. We're taking them down this weekend."

"Shit. This sounds like last year's ploy to spend all the christmas gift funds on explosives."

"I wish. We won't be calling you in, but keep us in your prayers."

"Yeah, okay. Good luck not getting smashed and stuff."

"Thanks. Last news. I got a report from one of the Military Police Division Leaders."

"Not that shit-faced Sanderson."

"The very one."

"God, that guy's asshole is so tight, you could sharpen a pencil in it."

"It shows, too. But if I agree with you, I could lose my position in Heaven. That said, our opinions of Christoff aren't antithetical. He reported that there are unprecedented amounts of demons entering your area."

"So? That's his problem, what's he doing about it? Am I supposed to house a shitload of MP's or something? He should know that my basement is Sanctified and everything, angels can sleep there whenever they need to."

"He's only sent one so far."

"One team?"

"One Angel."

Levi almost fell out of his chair. He caught his balance and looked at his pagelink with shock. "What the  _ fuck?! _ What a convoluted idiot, who the  _ fuck _ -"

"He's testing the individual, of course, but just know that there are likely between ten and twenty upper-tier Demons attacking a single household. The occupants might need help."

"Is the house off Martin's way?"

"It wasn't in the report."

Levi shrugged in irritation. "I think I know the kid. He's in my last class. Tough kid. Mom died a few weeks back. Smarter than you and me combined."

"Figures. Lucifer typically targets the brilliant ones."

"Mind if I help him out? This actually ties into what we were talking about earlier."

"As long as those Ackermans and maybe that kid— check that, get every person you know to join the scouting legion, I can turn a blind eye to just about anything."

Levi smiled as a light knock tapped on his office door. Hanji poked her head in, looking at him expectantly. "Good. The kid's name is Arlert. I'm going to tell him everything."

\------

The front door of the Leonhardt house had a terrible squeak that even the neighbours complained about periodically. But Grant Leonhardt didn't change it; it alerted him when Annie was home or when Reiner and Bertholdt had arrived for training.

This time, it alerted him of the former. She crept inside quietly, careful not to disturb his phone call.

"Yeah," he said, "Two participants. My third isn't interested."

Annie threw him a dark look as he colluded with the interlocutor on the other end of the phone. He returned the look.

_ Don't know what she's upset about,  _ he considered _ , she's not even fighting _ .

He finished the call quickly as she sat herself at the kitchen table, clearing some space for her to do her little school work.

"Reiner and Bert shouldn't be involved with the Slaughterhouse this weekend," she said quickly, keeping her eyes on the papers in front of her. "They're going to get killed. Leviathan is going to be there."

"As if  _ you  _ knew anything," he grunted, pulling a soft drink from his refrigerator. "They'll be fine. The Slaughterhouse gets talked up; it's not any harsher than the Docks or the Construct. And Leviathan's never killed anybody."

"You can’t prove that. He's definitely paralyzed a few," she countered quietly. "He could put Reiner in a wheelchair."

"Well, maybe you should come make sure that he doesn't!" He spat; he didn't have time for this. Insubordinate daughters were at the bottom of his priority list.

As he walked out the door to meet the boys at the Gym, he heard her retort from the kitchen.

"Maybe I will."

\------------

The sickening  _ squelch  _ of her spear tearing flesh echoed through the sewers. The massive figure staggered backwards before slipping into the shallow river of sewage.

She darted across the walkway and over the barrier, landing hard on the fallen demon's chest. It was skeletal and horned all over. It flailed and thrashed as she caught hold of the gleaming silver shaft of her spear and  _ yanked  _ it back and forth to cause as much damage as she could.

The great half-man/half snake skeleton fell still just before beginning a rapid decay, a throe shared by all dead demons. She watched its featureless face flake and disintegrate before she hopped away, onto the walkway designed for workers. The Tier-eight Fear had been roaming the underground sewer maze, but hadn't provided any clues as to the whereabouts of Despair.

She grit her teeth and racked her brains for the possible location of the beast that was harming Armin. The mountains? Forests? The deserts surrounding the town? She'd never kill it until she had an inkling as to where it was.

She glanced at her page link. At nearly 1 AM, in t showed that she'd been on earth for more than thirty hours. She would reach her limit soon, and if she didn't take the thing down before then, she'd  _ never  _ be allowed back here.

Stress levels somewhat higher than normal, she began her ascent to the surface. She had a lot of work to do.

\--------

Armin's classes were interesting to watch, now that the demon population had been severely reduced. A few of the first-tier critters still scurried about weaving bad thoughts into the minds of the students, but they were so weak and inconsequential that Annie left most of them to just be.

The interesting part about them, however, was how they reacted to several of the students. She noticed it first when Armin arrived at school. It was as if someone had shouted "Bomb!" and only the demons heard it; though there wasn't anything directly threatening them (save for Annie, but she had been sneaking), they scattered and hid in their various holes and bins.

She had looked at Mikasa, Eren, and Armin with fascination. The three as a trio had literally sent demons running. Was one of them especially potent and pure? Perhaps they had vast potential to serve with the Guardian Angels? Was one of them secretly an Angel in disguise? Unlikely, but the thought was intriguing.

As Annie had entered the building, she stumbled slightly, and she realized the true depth of her exhaust. How long had she been on Earth? She was nearing forty hours, certainly. She'd been up all night scouring the streets and sewers for anything that even resembled a high-tier Despair. She'd killed two mid-tier demons, but nothing had given her any information as to where the real culprit was.

Where  _ was  _ it?

She caught herself and pursed her lips. There could be some clues in the school as to where Despair was, so she would stay and search the place top to bottom before sneaking back to his house in hopes of catching the fiend by surprise.

Mentally, she noted that the presence of either Mikasa or Eren sent Demons running, and began her search of the school.

\--------

In AP Government, Armin sat feeling bright and good. Not amazing, obviously; but his frame of mind wasn't dangerous or self-loathing, it was comfortable and pleasant. He hadn't the chance to talk to Annie this morning, as he'd been in a rush for school, but he periodically felt her nearby. Whether she was following him or searching the school for demons, he didn't know.

Every time he thought about her though, he felt a little smile creep onto his face.

"What are you grinning about?" Connie said.

He shook himself back to the present. "Nothing," he said, "Just slept well."

"Bullshit," Ymir said quickly, "No one sleeps well on a Thursday night. It's taboo. Especially when they have a shiner as big as Armin's."

"Yeah, Armin, what the hell? Who decked you, man?" Connie asked.

Armin grimaced. "I got jumped on Wednesday while I was walking home."

"Fuckin hell," Ymir's freckled face split into a grin as she looked at Armin's face. "That was a solid hit."

He concurred wordlessly as Connie leaned in and poked the bruised skin. "Ouch, Connie, what was that for?"

"I was wondering if it was real. I think Mr. Ackerman's been wearing makeup to cover up a bruise all week."

"Why would I fake a black eye?" Armin asked, rubbing the sensitive bruise. "That's stupid."

Before Connie or Ymir could respond, Mr. Oruo appeared with a stack of paper. "I figured you punks weren't listening, but this is the quiz on the Executive branch. Arlert, you get an extra 15 bonus points from–– Holy  _ crap _ , who punched you?"

Armin sighed. "I got jumped after school on Wednesday. I don't know who it was. But I'm fine."

"Damn," Mr. Oruo said, and tossed the papers down. "Anyway, you have twenty minutes to finish this. Good luck."

"Do you have any medicine to help that, though?" Historia asked as the teacher walked away.

"No, it mostly doesn't hurt anymore," he fibbed. It hurt plenty, but he didn't want anyone to do anything about it. He flipped some of his long hair over his face in an attempt to minimise the damage that Kenny had done. "It'll look better after the weekend, hopefully."

He had decided not to tell everyone about Kenny, since he was already planning on approaching Mr. Ackerman after school about it.

So he smiled at Historia and grabbed a quiz, crossing his fingers that he'd still pass, despite his complete lack of study this week.

\---------

_ Jean, Marco, Eren or Mikasa. Probably  _ _ and  _ _ Mikasa. _

Annie casually stomped the brains out of a little rat-demon that she didn't even know the name of, although it looked like a deformed Hypocrisy.

_ How are all these kids scaring demons off? _

\---------

By the time the bell rang for lunch, Armin was almost like a normal human. Even though he'd had perhaps the most rigorous, insane, upside-down, topsy-turvy, eerie, enlightening,  _ exciting _ , and  _ emotional  _ week of his life, and  _ even though _ he was definitely feeling a little shaken-up therefrom, he found himself laughing at Eren's jokes and Mikasa's stories.

"You mean Mr Ackerman cockblocked Hanji with a  _ couch?! _ " Eren was incredulous.

"I mean Levi cockblocked Hanji with a couch," Mikasa confirmed blithely. "She was even wearing cute underwear and everything."

"Mr. Ackerman is a damn savage," Eren said happily and looking at Armin, clearly impressed.

"What did Hanji do?" Armin asked as he took a bite of his signature Nutella-and-strawberry-jam sandwich.

Mikasa glanced at him, and although her face didn't change, he could tell that she was pleased that he was with them and talking and appreciating her story.

"She slept butt-naked."

Eren roared with laughter as Armin almost snorted out his sandwich.

\---------------

_ Jean, Marco, Eren, Mikasa, Ymir, Historia. _

Annie held a squirming, squealing tier-one Laziness up to the girl who was sneaking strips of beef jerky under the table to a shorter, bald boy. The demon became frantic, trying desperately to gnaw at her fingers, to leap from her grasp, anything. Its terror intensified the closer it got to the duo, and lessened as she pulled it away.

As part of the experiment, she walked across the room and held the little reptilian demon up to a student whose name she thought was Grant. In response, the boy yawned and tossed his pencil onto his desk, glancing at the teacher before slipping his cell phone out of his pocket. The demon growled and purred and reached its little claws toward him.

_ Huh,  _ she thought, _ and Sasha and Connie. _

_ Interesting. _

\-------------

"And that's why Sherman and Grant's–– Jesus  _ fucking Christ, _ Jaeger, did you just pinch her ass?" Mr Ackerman cut himself off to call Eren out in the middle of the lesson.

Armin immediately began laughing; a deep and hearty thing that brought tears to his eyes, as well as the classroom around him. Eren's face turned a beet red, which sat, stunned and in direct contrast to the bright pink of Mikasa's face in front of him. They both began stuttering out explanations.

"I- er, sorry-"

"No, he didn't, it was-"

"Yeah, I was just-"

"Was an accident!"

Mr. Ackerman gave them his flattest stare, laced with his most disgusted sneer. "The both of you horny idiots need Jesus."

The class continued, and Armin only realised near the end that he'd promised Hanji (whose sprawled form on Levi's couch had yet to fully leave his mind) that he'd approach the teacher about Kenny.

So when class ended and Eren and Mikasa scurried out without much more than a goodbye to Armin, he approached the history teacher with only a wisp of malaise.

"If you're going to try and convince me that it was you pinching Mik's ass and not Jaeger, you'd better have some convincing evidence, Arlert."

Armin laughed again and noted mentally that he was enjoying all the laughter today. Did he usually laugh this much at school?

"No," he said, "That was definitely Eren. No, I... I actually was wondering if I could ask for... some help."

The man looked away from his computer to make eye contact with the blond teenager before him. "I guess, what do you need?"

Armin bit his lip before nabbing a nearby vacant chair. As he did, he made a scan of the room, and caught Bryce leaving in a hurry with a group of other students.

"Have you figured out an answer to my question?" Levi asked nonchalantly, turning back to the computer. He threw his feet up onto the far end of his desk and tilted his screen so that Armin couldn't see it, but not before he saw some kind of schedule on it.

"No," Armin replied sheepishly, "I've had a wild few days, I guess."

"That's alright. But I want an answer by next week."

Armin raised an eyebrow, but nodded. "Okay."

When he was met with silence, he paused and quickly phrased his petition. "So...

I've been meeting with Hanji. She told me that I should tell you who really punched me in the face."

"I heard you didn't know who clocked you. Called that as grade-A unpasteurised bullshit at ten AM this morning."

Armin chuckled and went on, pausing only to realise that he was actually doing something about Kenny, which was something he'd been worrying about for months.

"I've been getting treated like this since school started this year, and it's only gotten worse recently. Kenny Ackerman and his friends have been doing everything from making me get naked on school grounds to beating the shit out of me, and I uh... I don't really want that anymore."

The history teacher cocked his head and nodded, his face not changing. "Swearing around teacher huh? So what do you want me to do?"

Armin blinked; he hadn't even considered what he wanted Mr. Ackerman to do. Get Kenny punished, maybe? Suspension was definitely on the table.

"Uh, I don't know. Some sort of punishment?"

"Could have gone to administration for that," he countered.

It was Armin's turn to cock his head. "Are you saying that you're not the right person to ask?"

"Hell no, you came to the right person. I just want you to know why Hanji sent you to me, and not Miss Ral."

Armin considered for a second, and then shrugged. "Miss Ral's method's weren't that effective. Someone told on Kenny earlier this week, and that's why I got beat up."

"That's not why Hanji sent you to me," Mr Ackerman said, and leaned towards his student. "You've been taking it and taking it for two and a half months, and now you're fighting back. Why are you fighting back now, Arlert?"

Armin sat back, racking his brains. What had changed? Annie, for one. Was she the reason? Or was it some sort of selfishness? Revenge?

"I don't want to get beat up anymore," Armin said slowly, wondering if that answer would suffice.

It didn't. "Could have gone to administration for that, too. Could have moved. Could have done a thousand things to stop all this ages ago. You've only just now started making things happen to stop Kenny."

Armin took a deep breath, feeling his mind work harder now than it had all day. Why was he fighting back now? Had his view of himself changed? Was he just here because Hanji made him promise, and he was a man of his word? What was he doing?"

"I think I came to you because you're going to send Kenny a message that administration wouldn't," he reasoned, "You're crass and vulgar and intense, but you also  _ always  _ say and do what will work best, regardless of consequences. The school can suspend or expel Kenny, but maybe... you can change him?"

The history teacher sat back, mulling over the answer. "That's not a bad reason. Not the best, but better than I was expecting. And you're right, I can change that fucktard's behavior. In fact, I was planning to anyway. I was the one who told on him for bullying you, by the way."

Armin started with a jolt, "What?! Really?!"

The man shrugged. "In my own defense, I only told Petra so that i could deal with it myself, but she wouldn't let me. But it all worked out anyway, since now I get to do it my way under the table."

The teenager looked at his teacher with awe. A little bit of irritation, but it was justified. Mr. Ackerman had gotten him beat up. But he was more impressed, really, so he said, "What are you going to do?"

The man smiled and dropped his feet to the floor, straightening his skinny jeans and switching off his computer with a couple quick movements. "Come and watch," he said, and walked to the exit.

Intrigued, Armin followed.

\-------

Hoodie on. Door locked. Combat boots on. One sided coin on hand. She checked her watch and breathed into her hands, watching the night's chill fog the air that left her mouth.

The moon wasn't an altogether unpleasant sight, even if its height signified the lateness of the hour. She walked under its glow with more apprehension than she'd care to admit.

She'd  _ told  _ them. She did. This was a bad idea. Now they were going to get injured and  _ she  _ was going to be expected to visit them in the hospital and commiserate that their families would  _ never  _ get by now that they were incapacitated.

She found herself gritting her teeth ––half in frustration, half in anxiety–– all the way until she sat upon the bus that took her to edge of town, where she waited and caught another bus, which dropped her off outside a large, forsaken looking wood-and-steel edifice that was some sort of factory before the wars, but was now derelict and forgotten.

The compound itself was forlorn and lonely-looking. Its wooden supports were visibly corrupted by age, and the slatted metal roof was rusted and housed several suspicious holes and gaps. It was a dead building as far as anyone was concerned–– until they went inside on certain nights of certain months.

The Slaughterhouse. She frowned and walked around back, wishing she could have slept through the night without rolling over and over in worry for her friends; she hated this place, and its legacy was one of blood and overzealous violence.

It took her ten minutes to find the entrance that had been established for the night's events, and then ten minutes again after that to navigate through the expansive (and eerie) complex. There were patches along her path that were illuminated by the moon's light, which crept through holes in the ceiling like uninvited, yet welcome guests.

The ground and upper floors were dry from the lack of rain in the country for the past weeks. There were several large stacks of aging timber that had likely sat there for decades, waiting to be used for industrial purposes. Her guess was furniture, regardless of the sinister title of the site that the underground fighter group had given it.

As she passed crates of fiberglass insulation, she pondered on the necessity of such a complex means of entering the underground fight area. She had encountered no other people upon the whole of her journey, which was something the organizers of the night had undoubtedly intended for the purpose of providing a difficult environment for capture should the authorities arrive.

The noise of nearly a hundred people crowding around several rings containing shirtless, sweaty fighters wasn't audible until she found a set of stairs that descended to the underground floors. Once she reached the bottom, she flashed her one-sided coin to the shady-looking bouncers, and looked at the chamber housing the night's events.

This room must have been the home to conveyor belts, large machinery, and busy workers to operate them, because there was enough space here for one of the roller coasters she'd seen on their new black-and-white television. The presence of massive piles of sawdust and wood shavings suggested that it may have been used to craft supports for houses, furniture, or even small boats.

She stood on a hanging catwalk at the only door to the room, thirty feet above the events taking place on the concrete floor below. A few sets of stairs went down to the rings, where there were some hundred people crowding around three separate rings. Each ring had a makeshift riser made from the excess of timber found on the complex purlieu.

Annie slid over to an empty place on the catwalk where she could see the chalkboard listing the names of the fights and where they would take place. The people below her were shouting and calling to those fighting as they fumbled over loose cash and made bets on the outcomes thereof.

She scanned the roster for the familiar titles of Reiner and Bertholdt, and when she found them, compared them to the current time and figures in the rings.

She did a double-take. Reiner was fighting someone going by the title  _ Skullbuster _ . He was in the second ring, his fists high and taped. His left eye was dark and bruising, swelling shut, but his jaw was clenched in determination.

The other figure in the ring, Skullbuster, was perhaps thrice Annie's size. He was a huge, bald man with a square-ish beard and a ferocity in his posture that almost visibly leaked bloodlust.

He plowed forward, snapping a punch to Reiner's abdominals that struck so fast, her accompanying flinch took place moments after the fact. Reiner, fearless in the face of pain, simply took the hit, twirled around, and connected his knee to the man's chest. It made a dull  _ thump,  _ but Skullbuster was completely unfazed, and he smacked Reiner in the face, sending him stumbling away. 

_ Come on, Reiner, _ she thought as she bit her lip,  _ that was sloppy. Think! He might have raw power, but you have speed! Let's see it! _

Reiner didn't hear her thoughts, and continued the fight. As she watched, she flinched and gasped at all the right times, and almost caught herself cheering and whooping when he made progress.

She finally sighed in relief as Reiner finally cracked Skullbuster across the face with a roundhouse kick that was followed up by a sweep of the legs, bringing the beast of a man down. When he didn't get up, the crowd roared with glee, and the fight was over.

_ Maybe I was wrong, _ she considered,  _ they aren't dead yet. Maybe this isn't such a bad idea. _

As she took another glance at her watch, she noticed that someone had started handing out alcohol to those in the stands. She rolled her eyes in disdain and glanced at the roster on the chalkboard, noting that Bertholdt had already fought and and lost by timeout, which meant that he was okay somewhere.

_ I guess I can leave, _ she decided, and threw her hoodie over her head, which had fallen off at some point while she was jumping up and down in reaction to the events of Reiner's fight.

As she walked along the catwalk, she noticed that in one of the other rings, a person was being carried away on a stretcher, their leg bent askew midway down the thigh.

_ "Leviathan's at it again!"  _ Someone shouted over the din of the violence-frenzied chorus of excitement, "He fucking broke Ackerman's femur!"

She frowned again, walking away from the scene without bothering to see what the infamous Leviathan looked like. She flashed her one-sided coin at the bouncers again, who let her through to the quiet stairway which constituted the exit.

As she made her way out of the compound, she noticed a few people standing around smoking pipes and cigarettes near one of the crates she'd noticed earlier.

Just before they left her range of sight, she heard one of them swear as their cigarette fell into a pile of something cotton-looking, perhaps the stuffing to go in furniture.

Before she could even register the depth of shit that this person had just put everyone in, the cotton had burst into flame, immediately spreading to the nearby wood shavings and crate full of insulation.

She stopped altogether, watching the flame spread unbelievably quickly. She looked at the exit, which she was in sight of; it was unbarred and nearby, all she need do was take it, and she'd be home safely in the hour.

But Bertholdt and Reiner were still here. And maybe her father, for whatever he was worth.

She grit her teeth and turned around, racing back into the maze-like complex.

\---------------

"Armin! There you are, you pussy. I didn't think you'd try the hide-in-teacher's-class trick again, after last time," Kenny said as he climbed to his feet. He'd been sitting against the wall of the school, throwing various books, likely from the school library, into the nearby garbage cans. "Your eye doesn't look too bad, as long as I– Arlert, what the  _ fuck?" _

Mr Ackerman followed Armin out the door and had only just come into view of the posse of seniors and alumni waiting to pounce on their favorite pastime.

"Hey asswipes," the history teacher said to the group of (Armin did a quick count) seven jocks and bullies. "I hear you like beating the shit out of people."

"Arlert, what was the  _ fucking rule?" _ Kenny frothed, his rage sparked and burning like a wildfire. _ "You shitbrained, tattling, _ sack of  _ orphaned–– _ "

"He's not a tattler, you fuck," Mr Ackerman cut him off coolly, "I'm the one who told Ral that you're the good-for-nothing outcome of government housing who's been harassing her students."

Kenny narrowed his eyes and grit his teeth. "What's it to you?"

"Not much, to be honest," the shorter man replied, "If you were anyone else, I would have turned you into an unfortunate industrial 'accident' years ago. But you're an Ackerman, which means I have to teach you how to not be an asshole somehow."

He sighed and cocked his head at the group of thugs before continuing, "Luckily, I have a tried and tested means of turning dickwads like you into good boys."

"What the fuck?" Kenny shook his head in confusion, "You're fucking insane. Are you going to get me expelled now or what?"

Mr. Ackerman shook his head and shoved his hand in his pocket, retrieving a small silvery object. A coin?

He tossed it to Kenny. "If you and your ... buddies don't show up at the White Chapel bar and show that to Nanaba tonight at 5, I'll have you and all expelled and sent to juvenile rehabilitation centers across the entire western United States in less than two weeks."

Kenny sputtered for a moment, "What the hell? Why? What if they don't let us in?"

Mr Ackerman turned around, pulling the door to the building open and ushering Armin inside. "Tell them Leviathan sent you," he said, and let the door close.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who's back. c: 
> 
> Why did I choose a Prius though they're awful
> 
> Wow the buildup to Armin's convo with Annie was a lot longer than intended, but admittedly necessary. That happens so often; I'll plan a scene, start it just a few minutes earlier than my plan, and it adds like two pages to the whole scene, it's insane. The same thing happened when Armin went to the therapist, it was intended to start with Armin flopping on Hanji's couch, but I started it in the car instead, and bam, the scene was that much longer. And better, but still. Long.
> 
> Is it weird that Fred trusts Armin enough to give him privacy and the Ouija board together? Maybe, but remember what a good kid Armin has always been, which in turn builds parental trust. I don't think it's that weird.
> 
> AWW they finally get to be cute and stuff. LOVELY now BACK TO THE DAMN PLOT you two lovebirds.
> 
> MMM sneaky background introduction halfway through the story ahaha YEET what's the secret with Annie huh idk
> 
> *Finds Galantis on Spotify* I AM THE HUNTER I AM THE GREAT UNKNOWN ONLY MY LOVE CAN CONQUER I AM THE I AM THE HUNTERRR
> 
> AHHH I'M BACK TO WRITING THIS EVERY NIGHT I'M SO HAPPYYY Woooo c: c: c:
> 
> Go listen to Fearless by Tule, it's been my theme this week.
> 
> Wow seriously dudes I am so stoked to be writing this is so awesome.  
> Blah blah blah school stuff let's get to the damn fight scenes already.  
> I know these in-school scenes are a little short, but I'm trying to get the bare points across without spending a shitload of time on them. For example, I could have written a big long scene to show that Annie was noticing the 104th being opposite magnets to demons, but I decided that two or three short ones would be better, because that'd get us moving to the climax faster, and plus, I'm also trying to keep your attention here, which I know I've lost over the past two months. Which sucks, but whatever. (Being honest, I have no idea what's actually going to hold your attention; maybe I'd be better of writing filthy smut. Huh)
> 
> Also, I'm just throwing this out, I hope you guys are easy on me after this, since I'm picking up this project without looking at it very much for the past little while. I'm finishing it because it's a cool story that deserves to be told, but largely because I know you guys like it, and i fucking hate when authors don't finish. And I'm not a person who can leave something like this just lying around half-finished.
> 
> Anyway that just turned into a rant but yeah hahahaha
> 
> This fight scene got long fast. Ha whoops.
> 
> Fuck yeah, this is done. ✅ 
> 
> As an end note, I love you guys. Sorry that was such a long wait, but the assignment's over, and now I have four weeks of assignment-free writing time. Pray that me and my roommate prioritize this over Magic. 
> 
> *Bows* See you guys next time! 
> 
> -FMG

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you're enjoying the story! 
> 
> A few notes:  
> \- Feedback is VERY appreciated! However, do so at your own risk— I take feedback very seriously and when I receive it, I 9 times out of 10 will go back and change things, and this slows down the updates!  
> \- I'm not the leading authority on literally anything, so any opinions or "facts" presented in the story are literally just that: my representation of an idea. If you're offended by anything (my representation of heaven, for instance?) you're welcome to comment, but know that I moderate every comment, and if I decide you may have been excessive or contentious, I'll happily remove it.  
> \- Literally, this story is my baby. I love it a lot. Annie is my ultimate favorite character ever. It's possible that she (and any other character) are too OOC, but we live and learn. You'll live and I'll learn, lol.  
> \- If you're wondering about the title of the story, it's from the Chainsmokers' song, but note that I only listen to the remix by Illenium. The music video for the original song was too weird for me to enjoy the actual song, lol.  
> \- If you're one of the noble and great ones who have been reading this from the beginning, thank you so much for sticking with it! Expect more updates! ;)


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